Straight Shot Radio

Sometimes life throws a wrench into your training routine, and you have to take a couple weeks off from working out. We've talked plenty before about taking deload weeks or taking a week off from training, and how it's actually beneficial to your recovery process if you train hard throughout the year...but what about TWO weeks? In this episode we dive into several studies on extended periods of re...

July 1, 2019 marked the 2 year anniversary of the launch of the Straight Shot Training online functional fitness program. In the past year, we've experienced some awesome growth both with athletes on the online program, and in person via personal training. We've also added some cool new stuff to Straight Shot thanks to some incredible collaborating coaches, and we've got a lot more to tell you abo...

Learn what to eat before working out, how many days a week you should train, and how to plan for success regarding losing fat and gaining muscle (with plenty of West Virginia accent coming through here). All of these answers and thoughts packed into this Q&A episode in response to questions from Instagram (@straightshottraining on IG).

Here are the answers to an Instagram story "ask me anything" I posted recently. We cover how to eat for your goals while traveling, how often to vary your main lifts to keep from plateauing, how to keep from constantly being debilitatingly sore after workouts, and what is the best diet method for cutting body fat. Thank you all for your questions!  

It's our 50th episode! It took long enough, right? I briefly explain where the podcast is been the past 5 months and where it's headed as Straight Shot Training continues to grow. Then I get into the things I observed on my most recent mass gaining cycle, and share these tips for anyone looking to gain OR lose weight, as the concepts are universal. 

This is part 2 of our two part episode on our first experience training for and competing in a strongman competition. In the first episode, Rebecca Brandon and I discussed our training along with our coach Andrew and gave you a brief overview of the events at the Strongman Competition. In this episode, we get into the specifics of how we each did with the events and reflect on the entire competiti...

Back in the late summer, my friend and Strongman competitor Andrew Presnell got myself and some other trainers thinking about doing a Strongman competition. With the help of our other strongman friend John Taylor, Rebecca Reifsnider, Brandon Littleton, and I signed up for our first Strongman/Strongwoman competition. In this 2-part episode, we sat down in the gym office for a rare break between cli...

If you’re thinking about putting together your own home gym, you’ve found the right episode. Coach John Taylor is an Strongman enthusiast and Crossfit coach, and has one of the more impressive home training setups you’ll see made of equipment that he’s both purchased and built. In this episode, John and I discuss what equipment you need depending on what your goals or sport of choice are, and what...

Zach Divelbliss was in a car accident several years ago that left him in a coma for 6 weeks. When he came out of it, doctors told his family that he may never walk or talk again. Today Zach trains twice a week with Straight Shot coach Rebecca Reifsnider where he does squats, deadlifts, ladder drills, hurdles, and a whole lot more than walking and talking again. Zach’s recovery hasn’t been easy, an...

It’s part 2 of our July question and answer show! We start off with how to properly breathe during different types of training and how it could be the secret to unlocking your strength. You'll also hear why doing cardio before weights isn't the best sequence and how to deal with loose skin after losing weight. 

Happy 1 Year Anniversary of the start of Straight Shot Training and Straight Shot Radio! This podcast began as a spinoff of a weekly live facebook Q&A I used to do, so it’s only fitting that we do a Q&A show to mark 1 year of episodes! I had so many great questions come in from the great folks in my Kettlebells and Ultimate Conditioning classes at the Frederick Y that I had to split this episode i...

This is a short story about one of the most hilarious and random, yet heartwarming and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had as a coach. It's the tale of an elderly Air Force veteran who badly wanted to get back up in the air in his homemade airplane, and how he hired me to help him train for his flight... 

This is Part 3 in our three part series on the 3 main macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Along with frosted tips, fanny packs, neon, and high waisted pants, the low carb craze of the 90’s is back! But why are people ditching carbs again? What makes this macronutrient worse than the others? And on the other side of the aisle, we’ve got the The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that s...

Part TWO in our three part series on the 3 main macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Fat seems to ride this rollercoaster of heroism and villainy every other decade. Sometimes it’s is the worst thing you can put into your body and is guaranteed to clog your arteries, and next thing you know it, dietary fat is our best friend and people can’t get enough of it. In this episode we give yo...

Part one in a three part series on the 3 main macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Since protein is too often overemphasized or underemphasized in the fitness industry, we wanted to start there. In this episode we give you the rundown of exactly what protein is, what it does, where it fits in your diet, why different people need different amounts, and how to figure out how much is righ...

For this month’s Q&A episode, we’re talking vegetarian sources of protein, how much and what time to take a creatine supplement, losing weight without a gym, recovering and staying competitive as an aging athlete, and the difference between beer and kale. Yes, there is a slight difference, so make sure you stick around ‘til the end!

Functional fitness competitions have become increasingly popular in the past decade. Participants set out to “prove their fitness” by partaking in these competitions that test a broad range of fitness challenges including gymnastics elements, heavy lifts, strongman style events, and sprint workouts. While I at one time competed in both the Crossfit open and in local competitions, over the past 4 y...

As many of you celebrated the Irish culture this past weekend with the festivities of St. Patrick’s Day, I wanted to jump on board and get into the sport and fitness culture of Ireland by interviewing my fellow trainer at the Y and Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Kevin Barry. Kevin came to the US from Ireland to study exercise science and shares his story with us, along with how training ath...

Personal training is an alluring career for people passionate about fitness and health, and for very good reasons. It’s rewarding, challenging, always changing, fast paced, competitive, and puts you on the front lines of the battle against many preventable diseases and musculoskeletal dysfunctions. But it’s not as easy as walking into a gym and starting to train people. In fact, I teach courses at...

I took questions from members at the Frederick YMCA and cover how to maintain total fitness while pursuing specific goals, whether or not you should buy organic, when and why to take vitamins and supplements, what to do when you hit a weight loss plateau, whether or not you need protein powder, where you can get your protein from besides chicken breasts, and why a certain gym staple needs to go.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, NASM CPT John Taylor and I write love letters to our favorite lifts: the Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, and Strict Press (overhead press). As a coach, I’m a big fan of variance in my programming of exercises. But these 4 movements are the foundation of my programming and show up every week in one form or another in my programming. Of course ALL of the other movemen...

You know how your workouts suffer on days when you don’t sleep well, and how it’s much easier it is to recover when you DO sleep well. Electrical muscular stimulation, compression, soft tissue work, cupping, and ice baths might be pieces of the recovery puzzle, but none can compete with sleep as the most beneficial recovery technique, along with nutrition and hydration. This is where sleep hygiene...

Look around your gym and you’ll see signs that say “rack your weights” or “no cell phones”, but the gym etiquette list is a lot longer and more nuanced than that. For example, when is it ok to ask to share a squat rack with someone? Or when is it appropriate to drop your weights? In this episode I get together with a few of the personal trainers from the Frederick YMCA and we cover a wide range of...

A decade ago, programs like Crossfit were on the fringe and only used by fitness buffs looking for a new challenge away from the typical gym experience. Now Crossfit has over 11,000 affiliates worldwide and hosts an online fitness competition every year that has well over 200,000 participants of ALL fitness levels. High intensity cross training programs combining gymnastics, weightlifting, powerli...

Sugar has a pretty bad reputation. We’ve all heard about how consuming it leads to obesity, it’s physically addictive, it causes type 2 diabetes, and even how eating sugar can increase your risk of cancer. And with the severity of these accusations against a single food, it’s easy to see why sugar is considered a poison by just about everyone in the fitness world. But with all of the hysteria, how...