50% Facts

So you’ve found yourself in the company of women. What do you say to turn the opportunity into a date? More importantly, how do you avoid being a turnoff? We asked Tripp Kramer to help us help you conquer this issue. Tripp is an internationally known dating coach and founder of Tripp Advice ( http://www.trippadvice.com ), a men's dating advice company. He is also the creator of the popular YouTube...

Friends, dates, relationships…all pretty essential to most of us, right? But a lot of us suck at finding good places to meet potential partners. We asked Tripp Kramer to help us help you conquer this issue. Tripp is an internationally known dating coach and founder of Tripp Advice, a men's dating advice company. He is also the creator of the popular YouTube channel "Tripp Advice," which teaches me...

Injuries can be huge setbacks for competitive athletes. Everyone has a certain window of time in which they can play their best. Time out of competition is time lost that can’t be recovered. For some, they can end a career. The question dovetails well with episode 46’s discussion of workload management, but obviously that’s not the whole story. Dr. Ramsey Nijem gives us insight from his doctoral t...

How do you balance the strength and conditioning work of an athlete with the practice, and actual performance, of their sport? Dr. Ramsey Nijem gives us insight from his doctoral thesis, as well as his work with professional athletes. There are some great takeaways for coaches, athletes…and even powerlifters. Here are some of our thoughts: How is exertion in a game setting quantified? How much is...

If you’re strength and conditioning coach, you probably want to work with athletes. If you can, you probably want to work with professional athletes. How do those opportunities come about? And will striving to get there make you an all-around better coach? We asked Dr Ramsey Nijem, who a few year ago became probably the youngest every head strength coach in the NBA, to break it down for us. Here a...

We’re breaking format again! This time we’re doing an open AMA, or in this case Ask Us Anything. Normally we like to have an expert backstop our opinions…or correct us…but this time we’re flying without a net. Here are some of the questions we took on: What do we think of marijuana and CBD? Will technology ever be used to judge squat depth in meets? What are our least favorite foods? What’s the co...

The medium of podcasting has grown enormously in the past few years. How do you get started? And is it really right for you? Being veterans of the podcasting game, Jim and Mike field questions from listeners such as: How much does it cost to get started? What are the tech requirements? Are podcasting and YouTube really all that different? How do you keep a consistent release schedule? How do you d...

We’ve heard for years that WHEN you eat can make a huge difference. We’ve also heard that WHEN we eat carbs…or fat…or protein…can be critical to making the biggest gains, or losing the most weight, etc. What’s the actual story? Here are the additional angles we came up with: Are there time windows for maximizing gains (or weight loss)? Does timing matter more for some people than others? Do you ne...

Your body turns food into energy, but how does that work? Can you use tricks and hacks to overcome your body’s natural tendency to be either fat or skinny? Here are the additional angles we came up with: Does eating six times a day rev up your metabolism? Do crash diets crash your metabolism? Does just losing weight slow it down? How do you keep from quickly regaining weight when you hit your goal...

Seems like society makes a lot of rules for guys. Should not eating soy be one of them? Soy contains phytoestrogens…chemical cousins to one of the human female sex hormones. Should we be worried? Here are the additional angles we came up with: How much estrogen is in soy? How much would you need to consume for it to be a problem? Do guys have estrogen in their bodies anyway? Are guys exposed to es...

Many people would love to be professional e-sports gamers. How do you get to that level? And how do you stay in good shape when you’re spending hours and hours a day playing games online? Here are the additional angles we came up with: What are some common physical issues associated with extended game play (other than weight gain)? Is there an ideal age for becoming a pro gamer? How do you become...

The existence of weight classes and coefficients drive many people to do last minute weight cuts, but many don’t make the best choices when making these cuts. If competition is about being your best, are you setting yourself up for a sub-par performance? There are many ways to cut, but which ways are optimal? We cover these points, and the questions below, in this very compact episode. How much is...

Once again, we take on this question with that help of guests Eric Helms and Omar Isuf. With the known injury rates of many sports…including or maybe especially strength sports…maybe we should all just…be bodybuilders? Unpacking this question inevitably leads to more questions: Can you actually call bodybuilding a sport? Is bodybuilding style training actually safer in terms of injuries? Do you ha...

Our digestive system has all kinds of stuff living in it that we can’t see with the naked eye – and even if we could, it would still be inside of us so... Anyway, does any of this stuff we’re carrying around affect how fit we are? Dr. Jimmy Bagley is an Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, and Director of the Muscle Physiology Lab (@musclephyslab), Co-Director of the Exercise Physiology Lab, and Re...

We take on this question with that help of previous guests Eric Helms and Omar Isuf, who joined us in studio. Eric holds a BS in fitness and wellness, an MS in exercise science, a second masters in sports nutrition, a PhD in strength and conditioning, and is a research fellow for AUT at the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand. Omar is a successful YouTube content creator from Canada,...

When weight-loss diets work, they work by creating a caloric deficit and not through any other magic. We’ve established that with our experts on the show already. We’ve also established that cutting out a whole category of nutrient --like cutting carbs in a ketogenic diet – can accomplish a calorie reduction. But what if you cut everything but meat? You may be accomplishing the goal of reducing ca...

No guest for this quick bonus episode. We sat down to brainstorm a little about our mission with this show in light of changes coming to the categories in Apple Podcasts. Our main category “Fitness and Nutrition” is being split up, and “Self-help” -- in which we're also listed -- is going away. Mental Health is being added as well as Self Improvement (under Education). These changes are supposed t...

Keto diets have been the new hotness for a while, but do they actually make sense for most people? Is it a better diet for athletes, couch potatoes…or both Jason Phillips joined us to unpack this fat-laden diet choice. Jason is the founder of iN³ Nutrition and the Nutritional Consulting Institute. Jason has written for several publications including Men’s Fitness and his own book, Macros Explained...

VR games are probably never going to replace lifting weights, but could they make cardio more fun…and more likely to get done? Dr. Jimmy Bagley is an Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, and Director of the Muscle Physiology Lab, Co-Director of the Exercise Physiology Lab, and Research Director of the Strength and Conditioning Lab at SF State. His department has conducted studies using VR games to...

You often see a disclaimer on a diet article or commercial that goes something like, “Please see a doctor before starting any exercise program.” What are they supposed to be looking for? We often hear about “health markers.” What are they? Bottomline: How do doctors decide if you’re generally healthy? Here’s what we came up with: Is there some standard list of results that matter the most? How imp...

This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. For a limited time only, they are offering our listeners an entire Month for FREE! Check out the Entrepreneur’s Tool Kit. It’s a great fit for the topic of this episode. Start your free month trial today using our special URL: Thegreatcoursesplus.com/FACTS Episode Notes: Many of you have probably dreamed about being your own boss. Maybe even ope...

This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. For a limited time only, they are offering our listeners an entire Month for FREE! Start your free month trial today using our special URL: Thegreatcoursesplus.com/FACTS Episode Notes: Say you don’t have access to the kind of gym you want to lift in, or any gym period…but you have a garage (or something similar)? What’s absolutely essential to m...

It’s a BONUS episode! And there are SPOILERS! Obviously, we wanted talk about the end of Game of Thrones. It’s not that we’re terribly upset about it, but wow there’s a lot of pissed off people on the internet. Beyond that, it got us thinking about our personal stories, about beginnings and endings, and how difficult it might be to tell the true story of someone’s life in a film or TV show. Here’s...

Seems like we’ve been hearing about the dangers of too much salt for decades because of its effect on blood pressure, but lately we’ve seen recommendations about adding salt to your diet for better performance. Is salt really dangerous? Does it actually help you perform better? Here’s what we came up with: Does salt always affect blood pressure? Why would additional salt improve performance? Are s...

This episode is sponsored by Green Chef. Use our link for $50 off your first order: greenchef.us/facts Episode notes: Nutrition coach Jason Phillips joins us for this episode. Serious strength, aesthetic, and health goals can seem to require very different nutritional strategies, but what are the things they have in common?  Here’s what we came up with: How often do strength athletes use their goa...