Barbell Shrugged - Talking Training W/ Crossfit Games Athletes, Strength Coaches & More

The most powerful experiences in sport are when you find common ground with someone from another world. These insights enable a much deeper, richer understanding of your own craft.One of the best examples I can think of features our guest this week, Dr. Nicholas Romanov, the developer of the Pose Method of running. He was participating in a little back and forth Crossfit Journal interview with Greg Glassman and Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell fame.Without a doubt, the entire series is worth a watch. Knowledge bombs abounds, friends. It’s refreshing to see such disparate figures agree on so much, especially when it comes to training. One of the more relevant points for most athletes and coaches is speed, or as Louie would call it, “Perfect speed.”Dr. Romanov’s take was that strength work was not enough on its own, not for the athlete. If you were a high jumper, for example, grinding away to increase the squat wouldn’t necessarily help you jump higher, not unless there was a concurrent effort to improve your

this week on barbell shrugged we’re going old school. It’s just me, Mike and Doug talking training. We sort of geek-out on the topic of strength progressions. It’s a discussion that you need to hear if you want to become strong. “What program do you guys think I should do? No matter what I try, I can’t gain muscle. I’m lifting 6 days a week, but still, my lifts are going nowhere!” It happens all the time. This week marks the 148th episode of Barbell Shrugged. That’s a lot, but I can promise you that I’ve been asked this same programming question at least 150 times this year. The cycle repeats. People get very excited and motivated early on when it comes to training. I know the habits because I have been there before. You use three different colors of dry erase marker to graffiti the training goals across your whiteboard. Also, we cannot forget the name-brand gear, the crispy clean weightlifting shoes, or the finest lululemmon board shorts that money can buy. It all seems important enough, right? All of that s

This 52-yr-old man strapped a 93 pound fridge on his back and traveled across the UK.  He's about to do it again in the United States.  You won't believe why.

Pittsfield, Vermont is a small town of just about 400 people. You don’t notice much when you first pass through, apart from the beauty and unspoiled quality of the place. It’s a perfect spot for mountain hikes and star-gazing. The town itself is just a two-lane road dotted with farm houses and picture perfect Inn’s, hugged tight on either side by lush green mountains. One of the only stops is The Spartan General Store (at least that’s my unofficial name for the place). There's a small gift shop and grocery inside, but this is mostly a refueling spot. Breakfast plates come piled high with giant farm fresh eggs and thick slices of local bacon. Tall glasses of fresh pressed green juice act as the perfect recovery tonic for legs left for dead by 5 a.m. obstacle course climbs. By now you know this is no average town. This is the home of Spartan Race. The punishing early morning burpee sessions and mountain runs come courtesy of Joe De Sena, the highly driven founder and leader of the Spartan movement. The lovely e

On this week’s show, we take on a fresh new topic, at least for us - Running. That’s right, heel striking, to Pose or not to Pose, the importance of strength training for endurance athletes, we get into a little bit of everything. As you might guess, heavy barbells are no less beneficial to road warriors, even ultra-marathon wacko’s! We recently got a chance to chat with Nate Helming in between talks at the National Endurance Sports Summit in Princeton, New Jersey. Nate coaches out of San Francisco Crossfit, right alongside some of the best coaches on the fitness scene today. That list includes Kelly Starrett, Diane Fu, and Carl Paoli. He also shares his expertise on The Run Experience, a cool online training resource for runners. Maybe the guy’s just a little unassuming at first, but before our conversation I had no idea he was so skilled and polished as a coach and thinker. More to the point, his talks and running workshops at the Summit were interesting, well-paced and high-value for the audience. You have

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are excited to welcome Carl Paoli back to the show. In case you missed our chat from last year, make sure to go back and check out Episode 84 of the podcast.    Carl is always a pleasure to be around. He’s also an inspiring and well-grounded coach that is changing the way that we think about movement. He certainly changed the way I view gymnastics, elevating it from a Crossfit programming curiosity to a training element that I now consider essential to balanced, sustainable strength development.    I’ve spent the majority of the past year doing handstand holds as frequently as possible. I have to thank Carl for that amazing insight. But there’s also one other giant insight that comes to mind when I look back on our conversations - Above everything else, Carl excels at occupying the common ground. That starts with a few realizations.    First, the most important thing is to realize that no one has all of the answers, and no matter how confident a coach might be in their opinion

This week on Barbell Shrugged we welcome Jackie Perez back to the show. I don’t think you need to be reminded about Jackie, she’s hard to ignore for a number of reasons. But just in case, make sure you go back and check out Episode 124 of the podcast. Trust me, it’s a must see.   We learned a lot about Jackie the first time around, but maybe the most surprising thing was that, despite the glossy, well tanned appearance and strong social media presence, this girl works very hard for what she has. Jackie might seek out her fair share of recreation, but most of her time is spent training and coaching clients.    There are quite a few online critics that seem to believe that what they see on Instagram is no more than a lucky roll of the genetic dice. But that’s not all that accurate. As Jackie will tell you, “Those people don’t notice the amount work I have to put in to look this way. You’re damn right I’m going to wear my bikini when I get the chance!”   Again, it’s hard not to love Jackie for her fun bite and f

Travis Mash

This week on Barbell Shrugged we have the pleasure of chatting with Whitney Miller, “Miss United States” beauty pageant contestant turned MMA Fighter.    That’s quite a transition, but then again it’s pretty obvious that Whitney is a highly motivated individual. She decided to give Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and boxing a try simply because it was, “The hardest thing I could do.” That’s an extraordinary, uncommon attitude for sure.    If nothing else, Whitney understands better than most that progress comes for those who are willing to push past their current limits and perceived boundaries. You have to get well outside of your comfort zone in order to really improve, even if that means training and sparring against men. You can check out this pic of her applying a rear-naked choke to Joe Rogan. She also tossed an arm triangle on Michael Bledsoe during the filming of this episode, which might have been the first time he’s been choked since his BJJ blue belt ceremony back in 2008. No, this is not a lady you want to me

This week on the Barbell Shrugged podcast we welcome Dr. Steven Platek, Neuroscience Professor, Crossfitter and gym owner, contributor to Power Athlete Radio, and current member of the NPGL’s Miami Surge. Yeah, he’s a busy guy.    Those are impressive credentials, but I actually didn’t know any of it at the start of our interview. I just knew that Steven was a really sharp guy, and yes, he was strong as hell. Earlier that day at the Las Vegas NPGL Combine he absolutely destroyed the deadlift ladder, lifting close to 4,500 pounds in total in less than 60 seconds, and finishing with a lift of 585 pounds. Not bad for a Master’s level Crossfitter, right? Really, it’s amazing. It was no surprise that Miami took him when they had the chance.    There’s a clear niche for Master’s level competitors within this new sport of Grid. No, Steven and most Master’s level athletes simply cannot get away with the super-high training volume that some of his teammates and competitors require in order to make progress. A huge pri

Several months back the entire Barbell Shrugged crew called into the 50th episode of Power Athlete Radio. We had a blast chatting and bullshitting with the entire Crossfit Football crew, so I knew this interview with John Welbourn was going to be great. But I’ll be honest. I did forget just how big he is.    At 6 ft 5 in and 310 lbs, this man is not your average Crossfit Coach. John reminds me of Tony Robbins’ larger, more athletic, Warrior/Mercenary brother. To borrow a phrase from the fantastic movie Shallow Hal, shaking that mitt of a hand really was like grabbing a bunch of bananas.    Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing people in the sport of fitness. Athlete’s are getting fitter by the day, while also getting strong enough to compete nationally as competitive lifters. That’s extraordinary. But that said, the world of the NFL is a few level’s up, to say the least. Just check out this video of John and his former colleagues warming up before a “WOD.” Your Fran time is awesome, dude, but I don’t thi