Beast over Burden powered by Barbell Logic

Learn how to get beyond the sticking points, where failure and quitting too often arise but opportunity and long-term success await those who intelligently persevere. Minimum Effective Action: Where is the Progress? PRs have stopped, you're not feeling as good as you had been, you'll not looking forward to your time in the gym like you had been. Sometimes it takes longer to realize than you would...

Learn how to get beyond the sticking points, where failure and quitting too often arise but opportunity and long-term success await those who intelligently persevere. Get Beyond the Sticking Points: Frustration, Failure, & Quitting There is a time around 6 weeks into an attempted habit implementation, new diet, or workout routine, where people tend to quit. The early, easy gains end; the long-term...

How do we confront uncomfortable truths about ourselves, not get bogged down in negativity, and move toward our goals. Uncomfortable Truths: Coming to Terms with Your Shortcomings You set a goal. Inherent is this is that you do not like what you are doing now. Something must change. You have probably intertwined your identity with the actions that you need to change. The potential pitfall is wallo...

We investigate accessory lifts: what's the point? Why do auxiliary lifts and how should you think about incorporating them into your training? Accessory Lifts: What's the Point? It's that time of year, where people begin to go on vacation and either take breaks from lifting or ask to do hotel workouts (which they often do not do). What may cause, in part, the low compliance with hotel training is...

We have questions for Niki Sims (and she has answers)! Learn more about Niki, her thoughts on training and life, and her goals. Questions for Niki Sims: Training, Success, & Motivation Andrew asks Niki an assortment of questions. What is a particularly memorable success story from one of your clients? A story that stands out (and there are more, but this one jump into her head) is a daughter of a...

Gauging nutrition progress can be hard, as weight & waist may fluctuate or not change quickly (or as quickly as we'd like). Learn how to better gauge progress on nutrition. Niki and Andrew discuss how you can better gauge nutrition progress and advance in the realm of nutrition. Gauging Nutrition Progress: Subjective Feelings Tracking nutrition progress can be frustrating. The amount of work that...

It's time to conquer your limiting beliefs to finally achieve that goal you've had for years or decades. Conquer Your Limiting Beliefs: What is Possible One of the biggest limiting beliefs is failing to understand what is possible, especially over a longer period of time. People tend to overestimate how much change they can make in a short period of time but underestimate how much they can change...

Learn the similarities between building wealth and muscle and how we can learn principles from both to improve both. Similarities Between Building Wealth and Muscle Andrew and Niki have been reading The Psychology of Money , a book that, as its title suggests, delves into how we approach money based on the inner workings of our mind. They really realized, reading this book, how similar building mu...

Invest in a home gym for peace of mind. Having training equipment available & close underpins training success, providing reliability, convenience, & peace of mind you can't have with a commercial gym. Home Gym for Peace of Mind - Reliability In 2020 we learned that access to gyms and restaurants (and toilet paper) was not guaranteed. For those who had home gyms, however, it may have been one of t...

We discuss how to lift forever. This is a mindset and approach to become and remain a lifelong lifter. How to Lift Forever: Why It Matters Lifting for quality of life is a habit that can last for years and decade. We hope you lift as long as you can. We've discussed the benefits of strength and voluntary hardship, and how accumulating hard sets and building muscle contributes to health and longevi...

We discuss why and how lifters should do cardio: what is most effective and why include it in your program at all? We answer these questions and more. Why and How Lifters Should Do Cardio: What is Cardio? Cardio is the term for those activities that raise your heart rate and stress your cardiovascular system. Another term - the term we prefer - is conditioning. Conditioning tends to come more with...

We discuss recovery as the limiting factor. How addressing what you do outside the gym affects what you do in the gym and your movement toward your goals. Recovery as the Limiting Factor (Toward Adaptation / Your Goals) The stress-recovery-adaptation cycle underpins the process of training. You stress yourself (the workout), spend time not stressing yourself (recovery), and hopefully move toward y...

We share our go to healthy recipes. These are tasty, healthy, and enjoyable and help you crush your goals (without suffering). Go To Healthy Recipes: Consistency, High Protein, Veggies Before we go on to discuss some of Andrew and Niki's go-to recipes, let's discuss some principles for how the find, make, or purchase these. Find ways to get as high protein as possible (from natural foods). 2:1 pro...

Swing for the fences! Don't leave anything on the table, give it your best shot, and go full bore ahead. Swing for the Fences! - Aggressively Pursue the Urgent & Important A single decision or event can change the course of your life. Regardless of life, philosophy, or religion, this is true. When presented with a big opportunity, you need to swing for the fences. Hyperfocus your life and efforts...

Are more sets better? We dive into a new study and an associated article and headline. Are More Sets Better? Evidence-Based & Nuanced We're talking about muscles and hypertrophy today. Outside Magazine recently featured an article that discussed adding more sets for building muscle, which argued that you should add more sets to build muscle. Andrew and Niki are here to be your funnel of truth. Are...

Learn about the good news - the gospel of hard. Hard things done intelligently and consistently create good results. The Gospel of Hard: Voluntary Hardship We at Barbell Logic have been spreading the good news of voluntary hardship for years. Truly, if you expose yourself to hard things, intelligently, consistently, good things will happen. Truth be told, even if you do this somewhat poorly, the p...

How can I look like Jake Gyllenhaal? If you've asked yourself or your coach this, we discuss what this looks like (really). How Can I Look Like Jake Gyllenhaal? The Goal A popular movie comes out with a young actor who takes his shirt off and shows his shredded mid-section. What comes next? The onslaught of requests and goals to look like him. Articles explaining his training routine, diet, and mo...

We talk about the evolution of training expectations as you move from novice to intermediate to advanced lifter. How you you manage your mindset, so you can train for life? The Evolution of Training Expectations: Managing Your Mindset PRs measure progress, encourage buy-in and consistency, and help make training fun for novice, intermediate, and early-advanced lifters. This slows or ends. You want...

Tips for Training While Traveling: Whys Why train while traveling? While, in part, it depends on how often you travel, your goals, the length of travel, and how consistent you are outside of travel. For those who are extremely consistent and rarely travel, it might make sense to take the week off. If you travel for business, you need to train. You will feel better if you train. The workout might n...

We really need to talk about menopause. What to expect, how you make changes to lifting, nutrition, expectations, and more.  Menopause: Causes & Expectations Menopause is about a 10-year period of life for women where estrogen decreases, causing other changes to a woman's biology. Some changes include the end of the menstrual cycle, decrease in energy levels and trouble sleeping, increased difficu...

Learn how to better your bench with proper technique and good equipment. Improper gear and form means less weight on the bar. Bench more. Learn the way. Better Your Bench with Good Equipment For anyone who has tried to bench heavy in a commercial gym, they typically find that the experience is frustrating. Weights are harder than expected and may even come with missed reps. Bad equipment is often...

Programming Difficulties for New Dads Having a newborn changes your life, and training has to change as well. For a dad, the change is different than for a mom. For the mom, she undergoes physical changes for 9-10 months leading up to the birth, so her training has to change prior to birth. For fathers, however, their changing (mostly) does not change before the birth. At birth it changes drastica...

Niki and Andrew interview Melissa MacGregor, wife of BLOC coach Mac and BLOC client, and her coach Joel Rasmussen. Melissa suffered a stroke but, with patience, perseverance, and strength training, was able to return to physical activities she never thought she could do again. Healing Through Strength Training: Perseverance & Experimentation Melissa saw her husband benefit from strength training a...

We explore professionalism and why it's hard to be professional. Professionalism is difficult, but deliver values and sets you apart. Professionalism: Competence, Integrity, Benevolence Andrew has delivered, through podcast and in-person talks, a deep dive on how competence, integrity, and benevolence make up a professionalism value equation . Matt also has also delved into this here . This framew...

What does joyful self-improvement look like (and is it possible)? Today, we explore solutions sans suffering. Joyful Self-Improvement: Struggling & Floundering People really struggle to make important changes in their lives (that they at least ostensibly want) such as to lose weight or gain more muscle. Reasons abound for the difficulty. People hear and see conflicting, extreme solutions or short-...