Beast over Burden powered by Barbell Logic

Chris & Matt Reynolds like to wake up early and GET AFTER IT. If you don't, that's okay, but you might try before you write this off and it's super important to have a consistent sleep schedule regardless of when you go to bed and wake up. You can't make up for lack of sleep on the weekend, and your body will learn and adjust to a regular sleep schedule and be better off for it, as opposed to inco...

Let's talk about focus. This is something people don't do well these days. Focus has atrophied due to smartphones, social media, the internet, TV, etc. Focus, however, is critical to productivity, success, happiness, and getting done deep work.  Something that can help both improve focus but show you how hard it is to focus and how easily you get distracted is meditation. The practice of bringing...

Matt & Chris share a technique they use all the time, called the Pomodoro Technique. This technique is perfect for both knocking out urgent tasks or carving out time to dedicate to deeper, important work.  The original approach is to dedicated 25 minutes to totally uninterrupted work followed by a 5 minute break. You can string together multiple blocks as you get better at this. Also, if you strin...

We all have things we think are important, we want to get done, but we continue to put off. This occurs because of the difference between urgent tasks and important tasks and the 4 different types of actions that occur (as an action can be urgent & important, neither urgent nor important, urgent but not important, or not urgent but important). We tend to put off the important but not urgent things...

As advocates of strength training, we encourage people to add strength training as a habit. Many of the most important things we need to do to live a more fulfilling, productive life, however, involve breaking bad habits.  Bad habits don't have to be bad in a moral sense. They ultimately don't provide us value and bring us closer to our goals. They might waste time or money. They might prevent us...

Scott & Matt share some of their productivity tips: what to do, what to not do, and what equipment or apps help them. When it comes to equipment and apps, both of them find having one huge monitor, 2 monitors, or 3 monitors helps, as one monitor simply adds time to tasks on the computer. Scott has also found value in having a scanner to digitize documents. He puts these on Evernote and finds this...

We have a model for the proper performance of the lifts and we understand programming principles and how to drive progress over time, but we have to acknowledge that for lots of people lots of the time, they can't train optimally. And, honestly, at some point everyone--every single person--will be unable to train optimally. In these cases, we have to do the best we can. Life comes up and presents...

Matt & Niki discuss their pre-workout routines, from when they train, how they plan for training on the road, food, water, clothes: everything about how to properly prepare for training--physically & mentally. Rituals both help prepare us for training specifically (e.g. laying out our clothes the night before or making some overnight oats ensures our outfit or pre-workout nutrition are ready). Bey...

Jason McCarthy of GORUCK discusses rucking, his Army service, & building community through voluntary hardship & shared suffering. He shares his story of how we went from US Army Special Forces (Green Beret) to founding and running a company that--similar to Barbell Logic--believe in voluntary hardship and building community. If you're interested in GORUCK or their gear, go to  http://goruck.go2clo...

Matt, Niki & Andrew answer your lifting & life questions. Topics include best pants, jeans, & shorts (for men & women lifters), forearm pain from lifting, what to do between sets, and best song to rally at a dance party.   0:00 Intro 1:20 What to Do if Can't Press Standard Bar? aluminum bars are worth it--can use it for accessory lifts 3:01 What Should I Do Between Sets? should I sit, stand, pace,...

Matt & Scott discuss fear of the lifts, especially heavy, PR attempts. Different people have different fears of different lifts based on history (repeated failure or past injury) and simply how they feel about the lift. Lots of people, for example, are afraid of heavy squats. There's something about a heavy bar on your back and that you're folded over in the bottom and--even with properly set safe...

Men's style coach Tanner Guzy joins the show to share some tips for improving your style and making sure you are highlighting the physical gains you've worked so hard to make in the gym. Tanner offers an online style course for men as well as one-on-one coaching (he even helped Matt frame his baby blues). You can also take a free quiz on his site to determine your style archetype. https://masculin...

If you're failing early in LP, you have to ask yourself: are you working hard enough? Some symptoms of not working hard enough might be not uploading your failed sets to your coach & failing reps early in LP (like the first 6 weeks). This often occurs with people who think a lot in their work. No thought will help you move from the bottom of a squat to the top of a squat besides a simple cue.  As...

It is popular these days to laud discipline and the ability to endure suffering. The problem with this is that it ignores people's values and preferences. Some people can bear more hardships, but others are drawn to certain types of hardships. Some people--gasp--like running, and many lifters do not.  Matt, for example, enjoys waking up early and getting things done. He's done this since he was yo...

One of strength training's biggest benefits is CONFIDENCE. As people grow stronger, overcome difficult things, and build a more capable body, they tend to carry themselves differently and bring confidence to other areas of their lives. Increased capability lends itself to more confidence. You know your body and do more and meet physical challenges better than it did before. You know that you can d...

This is a throwback to the early days of the podcast. Matt and Scott discuss the concept of voluntary hardship: what is it and how does it refine us? Life will undoubtedly present difficulties. This is involuntary hardship. Choosing to go through something difficult, however, seems to provide benefits.  Essentially, this is delayed gratification: do something hard now to delay the benefit to a fut...

Life comes with difficulties, no matter what we do. Hardship comes voluntarily or involuntarily, but for any hardship our mindset before, during, and after matters: how we approach and process challenging events matter.  Hardship--voluntary or involuntary--can refine us and improve our relationships, or it can beat us down and weaken social ties. Our relationship with the event--which we define wi...

Brett Bartholomew joins Matt & Niki to discuss the art of coaching: what is coaching and how to do it more effectively. Brett is the author of Conscious Coaching, and you can find out more about Brett & his work  here . Consider experience versus exposure. Experience requires skin in the game. You might have exposure to lifting and ideas around coaching or business, but do you have experience doin...

Niki talks to Chewjitsu (aka Nick Albin), a competitive black belt Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practictioner to discuss BJJ, strength, sports-specific training, & balancing various physical attributes & life pursuits.  You can find him here: https://www.youtube.com/user/chewybjj https://www.chewjitsu.net/ Chewie is a strength advocate within the BJJ community, a community that sometimes dismisses strength...

Matt & Niki and your lifting and life questions. Topics include coaching certifications oriented to coaching females, shoulder pain from presses & squats, adductor tears during squats, office strength groups, and power clean rack position. 0:00 Introduction & BLOC Party Overview 8:16 Programming During Weight Cuts Gained a bunch of weight during LP, having a USSF meet coming up: still want to hit...

Gillian Ward joins Niki Sims to talk weight cuts and Niki's recent experience cutting weight, which Gillian helped her with. Why cut weight, and how do you cut weight if you decide to cut weight? Weight cuts aren't for beginners, and people need to really think about why they want to cut weight. This isn't about sustainable weight loss like we've discussed with Take Charge 10 and the Nutrition Ser...

Rachel Reynolds joins Bekah & Anna Marie to bust some strong moms myths, including toning & tightening, burning belly fat, giving you energy, and confidence. 0:00 Introduction 2:57 Energy to Keep Up with Your Kids doesn't give you energy, but gives you strength & confidence & calmness it's a give and take because it also takes energy 6:31 Tightening & Toning Your Body nope lifting does probably do...

How do you balance all your responsibilities and set a positive example for your kids? Bekah and Anna Marie discuss what they've found works for themselves and their clients.  It can feel impossible to train while maintaining your other responsibilities. Despite this feeling, training can help bolster your ability to uphold your other responsibilities. Capable, strong moms who regularly subject th...

Bekah & Anna Marie take on the elephant in the room when it comes to females lifting: stress incontinence. They provide helpful tips and strategies whether you struggle with this yourself or you are a coach who has clients who struggle with this (whether they tell you or not). To be clear, we're discussing what happens if you pee when lifting, usually at heavier weights.  Different types of incont...

Anna Marie & Rebekah tackle pregnancy and lifting. There's lots of bad information and poor choices people can make in this arena. Recommendations generally used to be against any exercise during pregnancy. Luckily, it's much more common and acceptable to exercise while pregnant. Modifications and listening to your body will help.  Anna Marie became pregnant after 4 years of consistent training. A...