Philosophical Weightlifting Podcast

In this episode of the podcast Claire Zai, a coach for Barbell Medicine, and I discuss the narratives surrounding female strength training. These narratives often drive interest to train, adherence, style of programming, and the perception and interpretation of the training process. Females are specifically targeted because of previous beliefs surrounding frailty, body image, and their reproductiv...

Athlete monitoring is an area relatively unexplored in the weightlifting world. The notion of tracking session RPE or giving out a wellness questionnaire can seem a bit esoteric. While these metrics may not be tracked and utilized in a program, it doesn’t obviate their effectiveness in communicating how well an athlete is tolerating training. In this two part series Drake and I cover athlete monit...

Maddison Pannell is a champion in the making. From gymnastics to CrossFit to weightlifting, she is making a splash, most recently clean and jerking a kilo over the 49kg American record. There is seemly no stopping her progress. She has the mindset, the want, and the will to realize her dream of becoming the best. Join us as we discuss: - How she found Cal Strength - Getting Dave Spitz to buy into...

Adam Storey was the head coach for Team New Zealand at two Olympic games and researched gene expression in response to Bulgarian-style training for his dissertation. He is the definition of science to practice. Not only has he studied high-intensity training in Weightlifting, but he’s done work on the RPE scale (with Eric Helms), hookgrip, and biomechanics of the high bar and low bar squat. Join u...

Rachel Leblanc-Bazinet has been an athlete her entire life. From gymnastics to rugby, and everywhere in between, she finally found weightlifting through CrossFit. She’s since competed multiple times on a World, Pan American, Common Wealth, and National stage where she’s racked up a slew of medals and Canadian records. Join us as we discuss: - Rachel’s competitive career - Her ups and downs as an a...

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Mel Davis and I take a deep dive into habit formation and what it takes to become successful. There's no person better to discuss this with given her recent book, "Evidence-based Habit Building; Finally Get Shit Done", and her history of success in both academia and sport. Dr. Mel Davis is a PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior, a BJJ black belt, and a life-long ath...

Sean Waxman has been a mainstay of USA Weightlifting for the last three decades. He’s competed with the best and he’s coached the best, including top-ten finishers at the WWC and a Pan Am silver medalist. There aren’t many people who can match his understanding of biomechanics and weightlifting technique. Join us as we discuss how the pandemic forced Sean’s hand, why cleaning up the sport of weigh...

Willpower Weightlifting is more than a brick-and-mortar gym. Willpower Weightlifting is an attitude, a mindset, a culture that’s taken Justin Holly nearly a decade to develop. Join Justin, myself, and Jordan Sakkas (Justin’s nephew and longtime athlete) as we discuss the anatomy of a coach-athlete relationship. Justin and Jordan have been working towards gold for the better part of 10 years, since...

Rising to the top of any sport takes talent, grit, determination, and a sickening amount of work. Kelly has done this in multiple sports, all whilst living with the diagnosis of type one diabetes. Join us on this podcast as we discuss the highs and lows of Kelly’s life; from diagnosis at age 5, to becoming an ice hockey world champ, competing in the CrossFit Games, and winning USA weightlifting na...

We interrupt your regularly scheduled podcasts about programming and technique, to bring you a voice that needs a bigger reach. Jennyfer Roberts was an up and coming weightlifter. She had risen through the ranks, swiftly dominating the platform and adding kilo after kilo to her total. Her story takes a turn during her first international trip with team USA, ending with the involvement of SafeSport...

This was possibly the greatest episode of a podcast that I've ever recorded. I was honored to be joined by Keith Davids, a PhD and Professor of Motor Learning at Sheffield Hallam University, and Kevin Cann (Coach of Precision Powerlifting Systems). Join us as we talk all things skill acquisition, the history and study of motor learning, bridging theory to practice, and the development and role of...

This show was a long time coming. Hayden's dissertation was focused on understanding the role and strategies for tapering to enhance maximal strength performance. Hayden is a former academic, scientist, and weightlifter, so he knows his way around a university and a weight room. In this episode, we discuss tapering from both an academic (what the research indicates) and anecdotal perspective. We s...

In part 2 of our Westside for Weightlifting series, I am joined by The Strength Agenda's head coach Tom Sroka. Tom has spent the majority of his life around a barbell, training for throwing, weightlifting, strongman, highland games, the list goes on. During this time he spent years working with one of the best weightlifting coaches the USA has seen, Glenn Pendlay. Glenn famously populated the use...

The Glenn Pendlay Method is a book recently authored by Seb Ostrowicz (of Weightlifting House fame). Seb spent years recording podcasts, communicating with, and handling programs from Glenn. There aren't many people who have had so much time interacting with Glenn on a personal level. Knowing this, Seb was able to write a fantastic book detailing the life and methods of The People's Coach. In this...

This is a bit of a different episode, instead of discussing coaching or training we spoke about all things Uesaka Barbell. Matt and Pappas both handle the operations for Uesaka, both in North America and Internationally. Matt is a coach for Four Star Strength and a sales partner for Uesaka, helping handle operations in North America. Pappas is the Uesaka Tokyo production manager and international...

In part one of our "Planning Training" series, the bois from Data Driven Strength and I cover the good and bad in our respective field, long-term planning, how their training model differs from strict block periodization, and we being to talk programming for muscle size. This was a short show, due to poor time management on my end, but it just means this will end up being a multi-part series. Enjo...

Jeremy has been at the top of powerlifting as an athlete, winning medals at World Championships and competing at the World Games, and continues that as a coach. He now works with athletes of all ages, from young kids to masters competitors, finding success across the board. In this episode, we discuss long-term athletic development, coaching young kids, programming off-seasons for powerlifting, an...

In this episode of the podcast, Seb and I deep dive into the constraints imposed by the pandemic on USAW and all of its athletes for this year's Nationals and AO finals. We cover the major results of Nationals, who won, who lost, and who had the most to gain from their performance. Enjoy this week's thrift store version of the Weightlifting House News Show. Seb's social media: https://www.instagra...

Coach Adamcheck had a very roundabout path into the sport of weightlifting. Once he found his way in, he knew he wouldn't let go. Since then he's been mentored by coaches like Bob Morris, Bud Charniga, and Ivan Rojas. He's coached athletes at all levels and continues to find ways to improve his system and its results. Join us as we discuss his time in the army, how he got into CrossFit, why he tra...

Sean has seen it all, done it all, and now passes that on to his athletes. He started with rugby and ended up training as a professional weightlifter with team MDUSA before it dissolved. During this podcast, we discuss his time before, during, and after Muscle Driver, covering the decisions he made that ultimately changed his life and made it what it is today. Enjoy. Sean's social: https://www.ins...

This was an incredible episode of the podcast, spurred on by Kevin's Patreon content ( https://www.patreon.com/PrecisionPowerlifting) . After watching all of his videos on his coaching philosophy, how to use accommodating resistance, and the role of max effort lifts in a training program, we mustered up a great conversation on why he does what he does and how his coaching process/methods have chan...

I am back with another episode of the podcast and today I have something a little different. I mostly record shows focused on discussing the nuances of programming, how to improve training outcomes, an athlete's career, etc., but after listening to Danny's recent podcast series on veganism I thought it'd be great to have him on for a chat. We discuss the ethics, global impact, and nutritional cons...

I am back with a guest post from the Weightlifting House podcast! This week I had on Jason Tremblay of The Strength Guys. We had one heck of a conversation, covering: all things programming for strength, building an athlete monitoring system, what Jason would have differently earlier in his coaching career, what it was like coaching at a high-level before he had competed in the sport, and much mor...

This was an incredible show! We slay a bunch of sacred periodization cows and also discuss the practical application of these concepts. The topics include: volume, intensity, exercise selection, expectations, beliefs, attitude, training as a skill, and much more. You may want to buckle in for this one! Thanks as always for listening and go check out Kevin and Zac's stuff: - https://www.instagram.c...

In this show we discuss all things programming, including: volume and hypertrophy, intensity and volume of training to improve strength, specificity, transfer, individualization, and much more. Thanks as always for listening and go check out Zac's stuff: - https://www.instagram.com/zac.datadrivenstrength/ Also check out Weightlifting House to support us and receive programming and more podcasts -...