Straight Shot Radio

Coach Delaney and I are back with another Topic Pile this month and we cover training for different goals, burnout, selecting a workout program, annoying coaching trends on Instagram, a nutrition idea that we DON’T exactly agree on, and some thoughts on the new studio Straight Shot is opening this fall.

Looking to add to your home gym? Or maybe you're a gym owner looking to expand your inventory? Either way, please do NOT waste your money on the types of fitness equipment that I detail in this episode!

It’s finally happening. After 2 years of searching, 4 years of Straight Shot being a company, and 13 years since I first dreamed of opening my own studio, we have found our own space. Located in North Frederick at 8411 Broadband Drive, our future home is a beautiful, brand new building that’s just minutes from route 15, route 26, and downtown Frederick. In this episode, I'm joined by Straight Shot...

Everything on social media is fake. OK not EVERYTHING, but A LOT. And coaches are actually making it harder for people to get in shape with the nonsense they're putting out on their channels.  In this episode, I give you some things to watch out for online so you can avoid the hype and do the things it really takes to get fitter and more confident. 

Do we really need to take 10,000 steps a day in order to be healthy? A recent article by the New York Times challenged this idea by bringing to light the origin of the mythical “10K Steps a Day” and compared it to the science from epidemiologists on health and physical activity.  I read through and give my thoughts on the article in this short and info-packed episode!

I have this ongoing note on my phone where I put down ideas, thoughts, questions people have asked me, hypotheticals, funny observations, and controversial things I’ve seen posted around the internet.  For this week’s podcast, I wrote down a few of them on pieces of paper and had Coach Delaney join me as we pulled topics off of a pile and talked for a bit about each one.  We get into swimsuit self...

Rebecca and Kyle Conrad are combining their backgrounds in farming, fitness, and grocery industries to usher in a new era for a farm that’s been in Rebecca’s family for 7 generations. Frederick area residents can now go to Reifsnider Farm for fresh local produce and free-range, pasture-fed beef. With Rebecca’s background being in fitness, and her having a degree and certification in nutrition, one...

Imagine a co-working space that was half office space, half private gym, outfitted with top-of-the-line functional fitness equipment.   That’s exactly what Hannah and Jimmy King of Squadstyle Lifestyle have created with SL Studio in Frederick, MD. SL Studio is a revolutionary co-working space that Straight Shot has had the fortunate opportunity to be an early member of. It's at this studio that I'...

So you’re strength training, 2, 3, maybe 4 times a week, but you might be wondering: "Well, what do I do on the other days?" "Should I rest? Do cardio? Lift more? Am I doing enough? Am I doing too much?"  In this episode, I give you some strategies to help you stay active, balance your work to recovery ratio, and find some things you enjoy doing on the days between your workouts.

"Workout Splits" are how you lay out your training across the week in terms of what areas of the body you train or what movements you do. The most common are full body, upper/lower, push/pull/legs, and body part splits, but there are TONS of variations of these.  In this episode, I detail a hybrid split I developed that personally helped me lose 12lb and maintain my muscle mass while adding 20+lb...

Wow. What a year.  In this episode, you’ll hear a quick version of how we pivoted our fitness business mid-pandemic to launch the current version of Straight Shot, and some big things in store for us starting this week! Consider this episode also an open letter of gratitude to each and every person we’ve coached this year and all of you who listen to the show, like, comment, and share our posts, a...

So what should you drink before your workout for extra energy, focus, and improved performance? You'll find out in under 11min with this mini-episode!

So how would a coach design a program for Geralt of Rivia, the lead character in The Witcher? Not, “how did Henry Cavill get huge and ripped for his role on the Netlifx show?”...Literally, how would a program be designed for a 13th century, magically enhanced monster-killer with a bad attitude on a quest to fulfill his prophesied destiny? Obviously, this is a task much too lofty for just one coach...

I share some tips and strategies behind the difference maker in your diet and exercise adherence: Accountability.  Trust me, this is not an introspective pep talk. These are real, practical things you can start doing today to help you accomplish your fitness goals by setting up accountability checks in your diet, sleep, and workouts.  If you're a coach, I've got a lot for you all in this one too,...

Challenges in your life are inevitable, it’s how you choose to handle them that makes the difference between them being something that breaks you down and something that builds you up Coach Ryan Morse, C.S.C.S, has faced countless challenges in his athletic, coaching, and entrepreneurial careers. The way he chooses to take on each trial is the motto of his gym, Crucible Performance, and that motto...

I’m joined by Straight Shot Co-Owner Chris Lewis and Coach Delaney Bodnar as we tackle some of the questions we received from you all on social media.    We cover whether or not you need to return to a gym, plant vs. animal protein in your diet, how to get stronger with chinups, more sleep vs. early morning workouts, and the correct steps to becoming a personal trainer. 

Brad and Naomi Leeman wanted to combine their love of fitness with their desire to have more family time. So they created the SwingSesh: a combination home gym and playground setup.  Brad serves as a Test Pilot in the US Marine Corps and Naomi is an urban design consultant. They came up with the idea for the SwingSesh, designed and engineered it, found a manufacturer, and now have their product av...

So you've been counting your calories and trying to make sure you're in a caloric deficit, but your weight loss has stopped...or worse...you're losing muscle mass. How do you continue to lose weight and make sure it's body fat and not muscle that you're losing? In this episode, I give you 7 ways to kickstart your weight loss and make sure you’re losing fat instead of muscle. These methods may not...

This week on the show we’ve got Straight Shot Coach Megan Foland. Like most personal trainers in 2020, she had a pretty wild year, except Megan also had a baby in 2020, worked as a respiratory therapist, helped with the opening of our sister company, Kinetix Physiotherapy & Performance, and started coaching for us here at Straight Shot.  We get into all of that in our chat plus we discuss her expe...

Motivation is overrated.  Sooner or later, no matter how motivated you are to start something, that motivation will fade. And when the motivation to eat healthily, work out, and recover well isn’t there, what do you REALLY need to stick with it? It’s Dedication. In this episode, I share some practical strategies to help you get dedicated to accomplishing your health and fitness goals by properly s...

Continuing with our series on coaches who embraced the challenges of 2020, we have Jess Racz, C.S.C.S. from JR Performance.  Even before the lockdown hit, she was paving her own path, being a female strength and conditioning coach in a male-dominated industry. I first met Jess when she was in high school, working out at a gym that I worked at. We’ve kept in touch over the years and it’s been amazi...

Ever wonder why you keep injuring yourself while working out, EVEN if you weren’t using bad form? Well, there are a TON of other reasons why you may have injured yourself and keep injuring yourself. In this episode, I go through a list of possible reasons behind these bumps in the road with your training, and how making these changes in your workouts can have you training more consistently since y...

The Straight Shot coaches share our own worst gym moments along with a bunch of your submissions from social media. Look, embarrassing stuff in the gym happens, so we use this episode to laugh it all off together and encourage you to keep coming back and bettering yourself each workout. You'll hear about falling asleep in a yoga class, pooping under a bush, odd bodily sounds on heavy lifts, throwi...

If you're looking to balance your many fitness goals, DUP is a method of organizing your workouts throughout the week to accomplish just that. Personally, I used the DUP program I lay out in this episode to hit PR's on all of my lifts while still staying mobile and athletic AND drop 20 pounds over the course of 15 weeks.  In addition to sharing my own experimentation with this training style, I la...

To drink, or not to drink? If you're a listener of this show, you know we're all about moderation. But what exactly are all those tasty beverages doing to your ability to achieve your fitness goals? In this episode, I lay out what alcohol does to your ability to lose weight, get stronger, run farther, and recover faster, and how a little moderation can make a huge difference in your fitness.