Natty News

Is it ever worth sacrificing your health in pursuit of some immediate goals? Today we answer this on another episode of Natty News. Welcome back to the show. We apologize dearly to our listeners for being out of routine lately. As we will discuss in this episode, getting back into routine is something we will be aiming to emphasize in the near future. This week’s topic is on the relationship betwe...

Progressing in both life and training is a tricky hand. On one hand, we need to push the limits just enough to break old barriers and reach new limits. Push too hard, though, and we aren’t able to recover from the stress and end up burning out. Check us out on this week’s episode as we discuss stress, lifestyles, and its effect on training!

Time is of the essence, and many of us fitness enthusiasts would like to get stronger AND become more mobile. Tune in to this episode of Natty News as we give you the three best exercises for your upper and lower body to improve your strength and flexibility all in one!

New year, new goals to make all kinds of natty gains… On this episode, we check in on the January 25 minute daily cardio challenge. Tune in to find out if whether Pat can run a block yet and if Anwar has survived 15 straight days of running. In this second half of the episode, we have a really exciting segment on goal setting! While in previous years we have focused heavily on strength training go...

New year, new goals to make all kinds of natty gains… On this episode, we check in on the January 25 minute daily cardio challenge. Tune in to find out if whether Pat can run a block yet and if Anwar has survived 15 straight days of running. In this second half of the episode, we have a really exciting segment on goal setting! While in previous years we have focused heavily on strength training go...

After a long hiatus, Natty News is back! We are back in 2023 with an exciting new challenge between Anwar, Pat, and our highschool friends. We outline a daily 25 minute cardio challenge for the month of January. Tune in as we discuss the benefits of cardiovascular training from a health, mood, energy, and athletic perspective. We will also outline some of the challenges we think we may face, and h...

As our local math and engineering extraordinaire, Natty New host Anwar is a big fan of measuring health to assess his fitness progress. In this episode, we answer the question of whether we should be measuring our health, and how to do it! We go into our opinions and some evidence behind measuring heart rates, BMI, bodyfat percentage, sleep, blood profiles, and VO2 max. Do you regularly measure yo...

Welcome back to Natty News!  On this episode, we start with a movie analysis of the Netflix doc Ronnie Coleman: The King. It was fascinating to look at the life of a legend after their glory days. This brought us into an opening discussion on the ends of some of our favourite athletes’ careers. Our main segment this week is on the idea of exercise as medicine! In a world where pharmaceuticals...

In this episode of Natty News, we provide an update on the IPF upcoming changes to the bench press rules. Anwar and Pat debate whether strength sport needs to be aesthetically pleasing, as well as ways to make powerlifting and other strength sports more viewer friendly. To finish off the show, we come back with a little Physio Fun Fact as Pat explains whether bench press truly is a great exercise...

It’s been a long time, but Natty News is back! Our apologies for all the delays, as it seems your hosts alternate crazy and busy times in their lives. We’re back today with not one, but two topics! We start with a talk on volume vs intensity. Can we make good muscle gains doing one set per exercise to failure, ala Dorian Yates? On the flip side, can we make equally good gains doing baby weight but...

The best way to learn is on your own….?? On this episode of Natty News we dip outside our usual discussion on lifting content and talk about how we learn! Expect to learn about the difference between implicit and explicit learning, and why having too much coaching and feedback in the learning process can actually slow down your results. We bring in all sorts of learning examples, from lifting to r...

For the past year Anwar has put in hours stretching, training, and sweating to unlock his full depth, ass to grass squat. Was it worth it? On this Natty News we discuss the deep squat. We lead with a discussion on our most time efficient method to improve mobility, including the Roll-Stretch-Activate protocol. We also debate whether you should be bouncing out of the squat, and whether gym-goers ne...

its time for Natty News

It's time for Natty News!

We are FINALLY back with some Natty News! Tune in to hear what your hosts have been doing for the last month. Pat recaps his Nationals performance in Kelowna and the steps moving forward. Anwar talks about his move to Austin, and how it has affected his fitness and training. In the second half, we get into an educational segment on management of tendinopathy! We’re bringing back the classic Natty...

Is explosiveness a genetic gift, or is it something we can all train? We’ll address this question in detail on this episode of Natty News. We’ll discuss the factors that affect explosiveness, including muscle fiber typing, force production, tendon stiffness, and skill proficiency/coordination. Expect to come out with practical tips for you to add to your own training! In our opening segment, we al...

It’s been long anticipated, and Natty News is back in full force! Dearest apologies to our listeners as we went on abit of a planned hiatus. Employment and athletic opportunities got in the way of the show for a minute there! Today we’re back with a talk on peaking and periodization, AKA how we plan to have our best performance at a set date. We recap Pat’s recent Provincials and Canadian Invitati...

Welcome to another Natty News

Happy holidays to all our Natty News listeners!    We cant believe we’ve done 45 episodes in our first year starting this passion project together. This week we thought we would recap some of our favourite episodes, as well as some of the amazing lessons we have learned from our guests. Anwar and Pat also recap their own year of gains, both in and out of the gym!   Do you have a fav...

The mind-muscle connection...sounds absurd but it can give you some absurd gains!   Join us this episode to hear the latest on the mind muscle connection, and why it's a big reason your weak muscles never grow! Anwar and Pat as usual tell plenty of stories about their own mistakes training, so that you don't have to have weak shoulders like they do.   If you like Natty News, give us a su...

In this episode Anwar and Pat explore the stresses of being fit and the constant struggle of measuring and tracking your health.

Andy Liao is an interior architect by day, and a Supertotal competitor by night. As a 70ish kg lifter, he is Nationally qualified in weightlifting, can clean and jerk 140kg, deadlift 227+ kg, and bench 165kg. This makes him highly qualified to speak about both sports, but particularly what it takes to compete in both weightlifting and powerlifting at the same time!   We have a really interest...

Pat and Anwar discuss Competitive Lifting

Happy Halloween!   This Halloween, your hosts the Natty Ninja and the Nattiest superhero Spiderman uncover the Gain Goblins that are killing your progress. We discuss the terrors of commuting, and the challenge of being a gymrat while maintaining relationships and a social life. A break from the regular knowledge bombs and a lot of humour and laughs in this chat!  If you like Natty News,...

What if we told you advil, rest, and ice was NOT the solution to recovering from an injury? Join us this week to find the answer to this question and more.   On this episode of Natty News, we discuss pain, and challenge the idea that pain is always bad. We discuss how painful training needs to be to make progress, and conversely how much pain is a necessary part of a rehabilitation process. L...