Barbell Shrugged

This week we stopped by Onnit in Austin, Texas, to talk about some pretty big ideas with CEO and founder Aubrey Marcus . If, for example, you want to know how to change the world for the better, then this is the episode for you. "If you want to be of service for society at large, you've got to be fit for service. And to be fit for service, you have to do these personal practices. You have to get y...

"You need to cross-train your balls, is basically what I'm saying." Biomechanist  Katy Bowman  gets straight to the point in this week's podcast. We interviewed Katy at  Paleo (f)x  Austin, where she's a featured speaker on the concept of movement -- not to be confused with what we often refer to as "exercise." "There are more muscles than you're working in the gym, and those muscles will go on to...

At this year's Paleo F(x) conference in Austin, we had a chance to interview one of the primary spokespeople for the Paleo movement, Mark Sisson. You know him from Mark's Daily Apple, his website and blog dedicated to "primal living in the modern world." A true Paleo hipster, Mark has been preaching the primal diet gospel since before it was cool. Mark's interest in primal living can be traced bac...

As athletes, the pressure to win has a very strong effect on us. The best athletes in the world are not only the strongest, or the fastest, but the ones who can keep their emotions in check during competition. Emotions before and during competition can define and influence how you perform. These emotions aren't just limited to the negative ones like fear, and anxiety, but the positive ones too. Fo...

This week on Shrugged, we are talking to one of the strongest, intelligent and most athletic women we have ever interviewed. At a bodyweight of 123lbs, our guest this week, Stefi Cohen, pulls a 445 pound deadlift, squats 370 pounds, and benches 205 pounds. Stefi is also an accomplished and competitive Olympic-style weightlifter competing as a 53kg lifter, snatching 87 kg and clean and jerking 105...

"If you are ONLY counting macros, are you really healthy?" That may seem a loaded question, but this week on the show, we have just the guy to answer it. On today's show, we chat with Mike Dolce and bust some commonly misguided beliefs around nutrition.  Mike works with some of the top athletes in MMA world and has been a nutrition coach since before it was popular to post your food on Instagram....

So you want to compete in CrossFit and perhaps make it to the Games one day? Getting to the CrossFit Games is no joke. It never was, and now it's a full time job to even get to Regionals. Competition in the sport of CrossFit is more intense than ever, and there's no doubt that the bar is set higher every year. This week, we meet up with Games athlete, Wes Piatt, who just wrapped up competing at th...

The California Regionals are all wrapped up and the coach we are presenting in today's show is responsible for getting 30 athletes there. If there is a powerhouse coach in CrossFit®, CJ Martin of CrossFit Invictus is it.  In this episode, we dive into the mind of one of the best coaches in the sport of CrossFit and discuss the process CJ goes through to groom his athletes, the importance of sticki...

Our guest this week is as humble as he is accomplished. You can tell as soon as you walk into his facility, which just so happens to be one of the oldest weightlifting gyms in the country, that you are stepping into a historic place. We are taking about Sean Waxman. Sean has been a coach and athlete in the sport of weightlifting before it was even popular in the US. He has been a player in growing...

If I were to tell you that using a BOSU® ball would help you squat more, would you believe us? Yes, we are talking about that half dome stability ball thing that sits in the corner at the globo gyms of the world.  Before you write off the BOSU® ball to the same category as the Shake Weight, you need to watch this episode. In this edition of Shrugged, we interview the inventor of the BOSU, David We...

With all the sleep apps, heart rate monitors, supplements, air conditioners, coffee (and more coffee) we use, it's evident we live in an optimized world, and it is making us weak. In episode 259, we are bringing Brian Mckenzie and Andy Galpin back to talk about the research they are doing around performance, and what it means to be a resilient human in a comfortable world.  Never before have we ha...

When was the last time you did a conditioning piece that you actually enjoyed? Chances are (unless you did track in high school) you don't find long spouts on the air dyne or rower all too fun. Neither do we, so when we met Aaron Guyett and got to talking about battle ropes, and all the practical applications they have when it comes to conditioning, we decided he needed to be on the show. Aaron is...

One thing that separates CrossFit from most other training systems is the fact that you are required to develop proficiency in a wide range of fitness modalities- weightlifting, gymnastics, powerlifting, etc The MMA game is very similar and unlike boxing, wrestling, or any specific martial arts, fighters are required to be generalists in all the systems. There are a lot of variables, and when it c...

It wasn't that long ago that we didn't have iPhones in our pockets, let alone access to the world's information at the click of a button. Back in the day, coaches and athletes had to figure shit out on their own.  Nowadays, the fitness industry is growing faster than ever, and with that comes new innovations and knowledge around training. That is mainly due to the fact that coaches and athletes ar...

We all see the cool shit on Instagram- the handstands, the backflips, the one handed balance thing on the fire hydrant, but want is not often highlighted on the social media is the process it takes to get to that skill level. In this week's  show , we brought back Max Shank to talk about how you can incorporate more movement development into your training. Max has been on the  show  before and we...

"alignment is about balancing the motion with the chemistry. you can't fix your mechanics if your chemistry is off"   In Fitness, we talk about mobility, a lot. We talk about performance a lot, and we talk about exercise technique, a lot. But what is often left out is what is going on the rest of the day.   It turns out, how we move when we are not in the gym (which is most of the time) effects ho...

It seems like every other health article and Instagram post is trying to promote the next best supplement these days. It is very hard to get unbiased information on supplements. It is straight up confusing to feed through the hype and distinguish between clever marketing and what actual works.  Most sources? They have an agenda. Supplement companies misrepresenting science. Media sensationalizing...

You ever think about how much you use your hands when you train? Think about it. When you are using a barbell, a kettlebell, the pull up rig, or a pair of rings, your grip strength is playing a huge role in your strength, how long you can perform the movement, and the level of movement capacity you have. More importantly, it is typically the first thing to give out.   In this week's show, we caugh...

  If you've been doing a few minutes on a rower and half-ass rolling on a piece of foam for your recovery, you may have already figured out it's not enough.   Our guest this week, Jill Miller, founder of Tune Up Fitness and author of  The Roll Model , said it perfectly, "Healing happens in our restorative state".    Your body is an adaptive machine.    If you want to get stronger and faster, you n...

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are going to show you how to take your performance to the next level. It is 2017. We are using technology, more than ever, to understand the body-mind connection and make them both stronger.  This is the next level for performance and creating an optimal experience for you as an athlete. Helping us dive deep down this rabbit hole, Daniel Schmachtenberger tells us h...

  This week on Barbell Shrugged we interview Stephanie Gaudreau and talk about how to break through diet dogma. Stephanie is the founder of  Stupid Easy Paleo , and has been helping hundreds of thousands of people change their relationship and habits with food. Unlike most food bloggers, Stephanie is not trying to convert you to her version of eating. On the contrary, she is actually quite fed up...

I want you to meet Ray Regno. We met Ray on a Wednesday at Mike Burgener's gym as he was off to the side coaching an athlete, teaching how to activate the lats in the overhead squat. As you'll soon learn, Ray is a really smart coach. He is one of those coaches who has a drill or movement for everything. We got to talking to Ray and were impressed with just how knowledgable he was about movement. T...

Performance Anxiety. It's a thing. Even the best athletes in the world fall victim to it. You put in the work, train hard, and hit the numbers you need to hit in order to be a contender. But when game day comes, something shifts. You question your capabilities, or tell yourself "I don't want to mess up or do bad" .     It turns out there is a big difference between saying "I don't want to do bad t...

This week we interview John Glaude. John is not your typical athlete or coach. He is not in the Games, nor does he study myofascial release. We first caught wind of John via his youtube channel. He used to weigh over 300 pounds, throw back 2 liters of soda a day, and the only training he was getting in was a DDR session at his local arcade. A lot has changed since then, and he has since lost over...

More dangerous than your opponent is your mind. If it doesn't support you, you're beaten before you've started. There are really only two types of fear: biological and psychological. -Tony Blauer When does fear come up- That moment you step up to a heavy barbell … When you are getting hit on by someone attractive at a bar … When you are speaking up to a new group of people… snakes… spiders… Fear i...