Black Iron Radio

Emi and Sabrina join us to talk about body image. It's a topic we could talk about endlessly, because body image and body image issues are something we confront every day, both as coaches and as human beings. We talk about the social pressures we are willingly and unwillingly subjected to, how (social) media diets can affect the perceptions of ourselves, why the mirror lies, and why working toward...

Carly and her client, Michelle, join us to share Michelle's journey. She talks about navigating one of the most difficult periods of her life, the challenges of listening to nutrition advice that she knows is true, settling into the different seasons of life, and what it's like to grow through it all.

Emi and Maggie join us for a good conversation on the need to be realistic in your journey. Building a set of skills and habits that set you up for success over a lifetime will more than likely take longer than a few days or weeks. More importantly, your desired results will as well. It's worth it to settle in and do the hard work. Of course, you will be most successful if you are not expecting in...

Whitney and Ashley T. join us to give us a primer on winter sports- mainly skiing and snowboarding. We talk about how to navigate the very real barriers to entry-the high costs and location limitations- and all the secret hacks they've learned along the way on how to find great gear for cheap, ways to get mountain passes cheaply, what you'll need on an alpine trip.

Chris, Emi and Kiefer stop in to talk about periodization- what it is, how it's used, why it's so important and necessary for successful progress in strength and fitness (we also advocate periodization for diets too! A topic for another time). We talk about how it's used in various strength sports and explore the divergent ways in which it is implemented.

We get to know two of our newest coaches, Jason and Chloe and invite them to discuss strategies for a successful holiday season. From how to plan for travel to how to eat on the big day, they got you covered!

It's cold and flu season! Be careful out there. Practice caution. But if you happen to catch a case, Margaux and Carly join us to talk about what to do about it. Primarily we want you to do what you can as you recover. Don't stress about macros, don't stress about eating right. Just get rest and hydrate. That's the main takeaway.

Yo-yo dieting, crash dieting, whatever you want to call it is taking a short duration and sometimes extreme approach to calorie restriction with a goal of weight loss. And more often than not, a thing that brings only temporary results. Lauren and Sam join us to talk about yo yo dieting, why yo yo diets don't work long term and what mindset changes and tools people can use to change their approach...

Sabrina and one of our newest coaches, Jason, join us to talk about injuries, limitations and general circumstances that might arise that cause setbacks in life and training. Sometimes giving your all means giving 40% of what you would normally have, but it's still 100% in the circumstance.

Coach Chris is in the midst of attaining his PhD, so in addition to having a full time job in the military and being a coach for us, he spends most of his time studying. Because of this, this is the last (for now) of our "Study of the Week" series. In this episode, we talk about the idea of Flexible Training, and look at two studies that investigate this emerging idea in the exercise world. Flexib...

Emi and Nicole dive into the murky world of diet breaks, refers, carb cycling, high volume days. We break down the difference between all these exotic diets strategies, explore why they're so often (and incorrectly) identified (and sometimes used) interchangeably, and under what limited circumstances they could be implemented.

One of coach Lauren Steppe's clients, Amanda, stops in to share their journey together. When Amanda came to Lauren, she was just coming off an extreme diet in order to make weight for the military. She knew that what she had done was extreme but wasn't sure what to do next. Over the next year+, she and Lauren worked together to build her metabolic capacity and get her to eat enough for the activit...

Our newest coach, Sam, stops in to introduce herself and talk about her journey. Sam will be our resident RD, so we will be picking her brain on a variety of subjects in the future. On this episode, we get into conversations about weightlifting and trying to fit into a weight class as a complete newbie and the struggles of gaining weight to become better at your sport.

Chris and Emi stop in to talk about supplements. We get asked about them a lot! We generally think most are not worth the money, especially ones that make spurious health and performance claims. They discuss which ones are worth the money and why, which ones are hotly debated, and why it's ultimately okay to use protein powder.

Nicole R. and Joyce stop in to talk about motherhood. Joyce is the newest mom in the BIN world so it was the perfect opportunity to bring in two mothers to talk about the challenges it brings. We talk about not rushing the healing process, why celebrity stories of quickly rebounding from pregnancy are unrealistic, and then take a trip down memory lane by talking about the early days of Black Iron.

Chelsi and Courtney stop in to talk about the virtues of sleep. We occasionally get pushback from clients and followers about why we question people's sleep habits when we focus on nutrition and the answer is because sleep is paramount. Without proper sleep, many of the other things won't work. They talk about their ideal sleep environments, what they do to wind down, the need to create a routine,...

A lot of people prefer to work out on an empty stomach, for a variety of reasons. In our Study of the Week, We look at the study Starving Your Performance? Reduced Preexercise Hunger Increases Resistance Exercise Performance (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34872065/) which examines the effects of eating vs not eating on performance, which has some surprising results. The takeaway is it's much bet...

Maggie and Manders, two of our longest tenured coaches stop in to share their stories and a few laughs. They talk about growing up in the Tumblr fitness world, becoming an example for others despite detractors, and building discipline within yourself in order to find the often elusive confidence we all desire.

Maria and her husband, Jay stop by to talk about how they navigate the nutrition world together. They talk about what it takes to be a supportive partner, the times they've fallen short and the lessons they've learned from those times, how to navigate having opposite work schedules, and what it takes to be a supportive partner not just to help each other with their nutrition goals, but with life i...

In our Study of the Week, realistically called Study of Whenever We Can Do These, Chris dives into the concept of Training Low, Competing High. This refers to attempting to force adaptations of metabolic pathways by manipulating carb intake, which will affect glycogen levels. The theory, which has some evidence to back it up, suggests people can increase their threshold before the body taps into g...

In the latest in our ongoing series getting to know the BIN crew, Lauren and Nicole stop in to talk about their busy lives outside of working for BIN. Both have full time jobs working in an office setting, so they talk about the challenges and pressures they face from coworkers. They talk about how to politely reject the constant offers to go out to lunch or drinks after work, special occasion off...

In the latest in our ongoing series getting to know the Black Iron crew, Q and Ryann, two of our OGs, stop in to share some laughs. We talk about coming into the Black Iron world during its infancy, moving from place to place to find home, and why the diet versions of foods can perpetuate some of the dysfunctional relationships with food that BIN fights so hard to break people away from.

In the latest episode of our ongoing series getting to know the Black Iron crew, we talk to Ashley, our beloved COO, and Kirstie. Both Ashley and Kirstie are OGs in CrossFit, being early high level competitors in the sport. They talk about why the seasons of their lives meant transitioning away from competing, the challenges of moving on, and what they do to quench their competitive thirst when th...

In our ongoing series getting to know our coaches, we have two of our rockstars, Kelsey and Kelly on. We talk about returning to Crossfit, why they call themselves professional athletes, struggling with bad body image even while being elite Crossfitters, why their friendship is more important than their sport, and why we should never get in a car with Kelly.

In the latest of our ongoing series getting to know the BIN Coaches, Emi and Diana stop in to talk about their origin stories. We dive into compassionate coaching, why being "optimal" at all times is unrealistic, being unhealthy and having body image issues while being thin, and why social media is not real life.