Lift Free And Diet Hard with Andrew Coates

Dr. Tim DiFrancesco guests to talk about the pros and cons of spending 6 years as the head strength and conditioning coach of the LA Lakers NBA team. Tim fills you in on the unglamorous sacrifices you need to make to work in this world an contrasts life running his own facility in Salem, MA. Tim shares what he means by needing to be in the right place at the right time doing the right stuff. Tim c...

Dr. Allan Bacon of Maui Athletics joins to dive into detail on how coaches can teach beginner and intermediate lifters to know how hard they can push themselves toward true failure. Allan dives into some research and strategies to help you use concepts like percentages, RIR, and RPE with clients. We also go in depth on how to utilize Facebook groups and social media in general to establish authori...

Christian Thibaudeau returns to discuss how to navigate(and in many cases avoid) extremism in the fitness industry. Christian goes far and wide in this animated discussion about how he's managed this past year, how his career direction has evolved, thoughts on doing a great job with online coaching, and dealing with introversion, social anxiety, and low self esteem. 

Sivan Fagan joins the podcast to share her experience and advice in shifting a mostly in-person fitness career to online. Sivan shares her thoughts on how long you need to train in person before you're ready to work online with clients. We discuss the value in long form writing and how to enhance your writing skills. Sivan explains why she believes it's a mistake to try to compete with the "big na...

Logan Dubé is energized and fulfilled by teaching fitness education to other coaches. Logan often travels many weekends to present The PPSC and other certifications. Logan explains what it takes to pursue a career in fitness education. Logan also details how to help people change, through changing their energy to support the change strategy. Logan also dives into being a great team player and work...

Muscle gain coach Tom MacCormick joins to chat about the effort and tools it takes for people to go beyond getting fit and active for general population training. We dive into the commitment needed to put on serious muscle while getting lean. Though geared toward men, this applies equally to women who want to achieve these goals. Tom also shares his advice for longevity in the fitness industry.&nb...

Mike Howard returns to talk about helping people with good messages while not running afoul of the "lunatic fringe" of extreme nutrition ideology in our world. Mike shares how he approaches behaviour change with his clients, focusing on process goals not outcomes, and choice architecture. We also tackle how to approach or avoid internet arguments. Where there's benefit and where you're using your...

I've enjoyed Danny Matranga's media so much I had to bring him on as a guest to share with you. Danny and I dive into career development and how we don't always know the path we're on nor do seemingly polished fitness professionals always have a clear plan. We commit to a process of consistent work which leads to unknown future opportunity. Danny approaches everything with an abundance mindset and...

Jill Coleman guests to talk about how she navigated the uncertainty of the last year while supporting the coaches who mentor under her. We talk about the new social media app Clubhouse, being careful with industry status games, and career growth philosophy. We explore how to get more female coaches into spaces like strength and conditioning while understanding that women often self select into oth...

My friend Robert Linkul, owner of Training the Older Adult joins to chat about how he pivoted his business this year to navigate the shut down of his business facility. We dive heavily into the importance and opportunity for coaches to market within the older adult population going forward. We discuss important skills to develop to serve and reach this population. We go over the importance of 'top...

Carolyn MacDonald takes a short break from her role as Director of Marketing of Renaissance Periodization to discuss content creation. Carolyn highlights how content creation efforts can help find a secure job and then pivot with the time demands and role of the job. We explore who a lot of coaches are struggling to gain traction with their media or even struggle to get started. We hit topics like...

Long overdue for an appearance, Dr. Pat Davidson guests to talk about the ideas behind his new book, A Coaches Guide To Optimizing Movement: Rethinking The Big Patterns. Pat has developed a reputation of challenging the way coaches thinking about the common ways of teaching and implementing strength training. Pat shares his thoughts of some of the existing training literature and the choice of wor...

Kevin Mullins returns to discuss our different approaches to social media. We talk about goal setting and resolutions in this very first episode of 2021. We discuss our shared interest in writing and the value of long form content for coaches to develop brands. Plus Kevin shares his experience with the importance of truly getting to know yourself before you can really help others, and the importan...

Legendary coach Bryan Krahn returns to talk in depth about being a successful coach. Success in terms of helping people and positively impacting lives. We talk about what online coaching meant long before the current trend, what was needed for staying power in the industry, and navigating difficult topics like addition and eating disorders with clients. Bryan drives home the importance of listenin...

Nick Winkelman joins the podcast to chat about his new book, The Language of Coaching. Nick elaborates on why this book was important to write and its focus on the research supporting the superiority of external cues vs internal cues. Nick explains when internal language is effective and when a coach needs to step back and simply direction into external cues. We discuss why everyday lifters and ev...

Nick Shaw, cofounder of Renaissance Periodization finally makes his first appearance. Nick goes in depth about his new book: Fit For Success and why he wrote it. The book and our discussion is rooted in Internal Locus of Control, and the other principles he believes are essential to personal, career, and health and wellness success. We talk about some of the great people on his team and some of th...

Dr. John Rusin drops in to talk about how he built his Pain Free Performance Specialist Certification into a successful brand backed by a world class team of coaches, teaching across the world. John shares his thoughts on the future of fitness education, why we will always have in-person education, and in-person coaching. We talk about seeing 2020 as an opportunity which will forge a lot of unstop...

Marci Nevin drops in to chat about the pros and cons of specializing in coaching women and some of the limiting beliefs we deal with when struggling to continually share engaging content. . She highlights the problems with tying nutrition to your identity and the challenge of navigating clients with patterns of disordered eating. Marci also breaks down the unseen headaches and effort involved with...

Pete Dupuis and I dive into Seth Godin's book The Practice and its underlying mantra of developing a consistent process without being married to specific outcomes. Pete shares insights from both his process of content creation, and from years of running one of the most successful fitness industry brands. We talk about his approach to social media and its pros and cons for your career and life. Pet...

Luka Hocevar unloads his thoughts on coaching and career. We discuss the process it takes across a long career to create a compounding effect on long term results. It doesn't come quickly or easily, but if you plan and practice patience, the process will get you results. Luka notes the importance of regularly reflecting and course correcting so you don't end up off course in your work. Luka talks...

My good friend and founder of Stronger U, Mike Doehla is back to talk about how he wants to see his customers and his coaches thrive in life, fitness, and business. Mike not only created and built a great company, he shares a ton of free advice for career and business success, despite not offering a paid service in that area. We talk about why we do this. Mike also shares the benefits of being a c...

Derek Wilcox, PhD of Sports Physiology and Performance and coach with Renaissance Periodization joins me to chat about where he put his energy and focus this year and how his competitive powerlifting and education unfolded and intertwined with his career as a coach. We talk about some of his pet peeves in the common messages in the fitness industry and how to reframe nervousness into positive exci...

Please welcome back Susan Niebergall to the podcast. Susan is inspirational and educational in the fitness and nutrition space. Susan reveals she has a book in the works, shares her love for my client Larry(often featured on my IG), along with her various thoughts and philosophies toward our world. She shares thoughts on content creation and putting yourself out there, the value of relationships i...

Business and brand, dealing with staleness in your career, and how to grow beyond where you currently are. Chad Hargrove examines these topics in our discussion on this week's episode. Chad explains the validation you get from social media, the dopamine driven compulsion of having a large following, and changes to instagram. He also explains his adoption and potential within TikTok. This is the ca...

My friend Lee Boyce is back sharing how he made the best of 2020. He discusses some of his long term ambitions as an educator and why he thinks mobile coaching is a good play for trainers. We talk about why the fitness industry is better than you might think and how the stability of secure salaried jobs is more of an illusion than you believe. Lee shares why he values instagram and various thought...