Weights and Plates Podcast

Yoked, stacked, swole, diced... who doesn't want to get jacked? While the basic barbell compound movements -- the Squat, press, bench press, and deadlift -- are the backbone of any good muscle building program, sometimes certain body parts need more help to grow. Coach Santana and Coach Trent offer up their favorite accessory lifts for hard-to-grow muscles after a lifter has exhausted their novice...

Alcohol is fun. We don't need to tell you that. It also tastes good! We all know the reasons for drinking it, but what about not drinking it? Is it possible to drink alcohol and be strong and lean? Coach Santana and Coach Trent tackle this question in today's show.   The biggest takeaway is planning. Just like you should plan the rest of your day of eating around going out to eat, you should plan...

After a detour to discuss the merits of halting deadlifts, Coach Robert and Trent explain the basics of hydration and fluid intake and why it matters for lifters in the gym specifically.   If you're an early morning trainee, there's a good chance you are rolling into the gym not hydrated as well as you could be, and possibly with low blood sugar too. If this is you, it's important to understand th...

Coach Robert and Coach Trent interview the woman behind the curtain at the Aasgaard Company, publisher of Stating Strength: Basic Barbell Training 3rd Edition (and the popular training method by the same name), Practical Programming, several other books, and thousands of articles about barbell training, programming, nutrition, the sport of weightlifting and powerlifting, and much more. Stef Bradfo...

A lot of templates and programming talk for the advanced lifter out there focuses on competitive lifters, or lifters seeking to become competitive, and competition comes with a few assumptions. One, that getting as strong as possible, and pushing for new 1RM's, is the most important thing in training. Having one clear goal (getting stronger on 1RM's) certainly makes programming easier to talk abou...

Coach Robert and Coach Trent discuss the value of conditioning in a strength program, and three ways to implement it based on your goals. While the idea that you can "condition" or exercise off excess calories persists (unfortuantely), though we know fat and weight loss are primarily driven by your diet, there is a role for conditioning in the life of a lifter and general purpose athlete.   Regula...

Dr. David Puder, a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, athlete, lifter, and fan of the Starting Strength model, joins the podcast to discuss the emotions and drives that underly eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and the subclinical dissatisfaction with food and body composition that we often encounter in the gym.   In addition to seeing patients and doing therapy, Dr. Puder hosts a highly successful p...

The novice linear progression as detailed in Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training 3rd Edition is attractive to novice lifters for a lot of reasons. It's simple, it's easy to track progress, and most importantly it works extremely well -- every novice has the capacity to add a lot of weight to their lifts in just a few months. Alas, all goods things come to an end, and novice LP is no exceptio...

It's been said many times on the show, compliance and actually executing your eating plan is the biggest factor in meeting your body composition goals. Many people fall short on meal prep, and tired and exhausted from a long day of work, parenting, and other obligations, end up hitting a restaurant instead of cooking healthy food at home.   Some basic meal prep strategies can help you avoid the fa...

Coach Santana and Trent discuss the many reasons the scale is a poor tool for measuring and tracking body composition changes, and can even lead to psychological issues: obsessing over a target body weight number, minor fluctuations in weight day to day. The better tools are measuring tapes, skinfold calipers if you have them, and, most importantly, the weight on the bar! So stop weighing yourself...

Coach Robert and Trent discuss the essence of the novice linear progression, and how this simple model of progressive overload can help a wide variety people with different goals. Whether you are looking to lose weight, gain weight, get leaner, improve your joint function, or become a powerlifter -- the novice linear progression is the best first step you can make and NEED to make in your fitness...

Online coaching is a very popular choice these days, for good reason -- the internet allows people who otherwise would not have access to a qualified coach to get regular feedback on their technique, custom programming, and a sounding board for discussing their health and fitness.   That said, there are a number of limitations to online coaching that you need to be aware of if you're going to do i...

Today Robert and Trent welcome the first guest to Weights & Plates -- Chef Andrea Wild. Drea is a professional chef with a passion for bridging the knowledge gap between professional cooking and good nutrition. She explains the difference between how chefs in a commercial kitchen approach preparing and seasoning food and how the average person at home prepares meals.   Turns out, the restaurant is...

Admit it, you like to bro out! You know, catch a pump doing fifteen different types of curls, tricep pushdowns, face pulls... it's ok, we all love to do some curls for the girls. But, it's important we don't confuse fun exercises for productive strength training, which occurs with the big compound lifts: squats, presses, bench press, and deadlifts.   That said, is there ever a time for accessory l...

Time are... interesting these days, and food is getting more expensive and scarce every day. We all want to stay strong and healthy, but protein and supplements are becoming budget killers for many. So, how much do we really need to eat to sustain a reasonably high performance training program? Robert and Trent offer some ideas about macros, inexpensive foods, and important tools and cookware that...

If you want to make a positive change in your bodyweight or body composition, it's hard to avoid tracking your macro intake. At some point you've got to understand what you are taking in day to day, to establish a baseline of nutrients from which you can then make changes. It's kinda like a budget -- before you start making changes to your spending habits, it really helps to know where your dollar...

Robert and Trent nerd out about every lifter's favorite topic -- gym equipment! Bars, racks, plates, accessories... they discuss everything you need to build a simple but extremely flexible and useful home gym where you can make gains for years. As with any of this equipment of this nature, there are certain tips and tricks you learn over years of experience, and Robert and Trent share their thoug...

It's another New Year, and another chance for millions of resolutioners to finally get fit and lose the weight. Many are destined to fail, as we all know (or may have experienced ourselves), and one of the biggest reasons for failure is part-time dieting. Changing habits to eat less food is difficult, and people often succeed during the week only to come undone on the weekends with restaurant food...

Sugar has gotten a bad rap the over the last decade and counting, and it's still common to hear diet gurus excoriate the evils of sugar, particularly refined sugars found in processed food in the Western world. As Robert and Trent discuss, the role that sugar, and carbohydrates in general, play in the diet is often misunderstood. While it's common sense that one shouldn't drink a bunch of Cokes ev...

We get it -- training is not always fun, and a big reason you might be training is to get better at your chosen sport or activity. Whether it's BJJ, running, mountain biking, or a team sport like football or baseball, getting stronger is essential to improving at your sport. But you have to practice skills and condition too. Many people make the mistake of trying to get better at everything at onc...

It's probably the most talked about macronutrient, and almost anyone you ask in health and fitness would say you need a lot of it -- protein. Nevertheless, many myths around protein consumption, timing, amino acid profile, and more still abound. Robert and Trent break down what you need to know about protein, how much you should be eating, and, perhaps most importantly, what you  don't need to wor...

There's a notion among gym goers that one can simply train themselves to a certain level and then simply keep doing the same thing, workout after workout, to maintain what they have. This flies in the face of the principles of progressive overload, the Stress/Recovery/Adaptation cycle, and training in general, and has caused some confusion among people trying to achieve fitter, leaner bodies. In t...

Starting Strength Coaches Robert Santana and Trent Jones discuss how to modify your programming during a cut. A cut implies that an athlete is in a caloric deficit to produce weight loss, and specifically body fat loss. Whenever you put yourself in a caloric deficit, you are essentially under-recovered, meaning that you have less ability to recover and adapt to intense training sessions in the gym...

Let's be real. Most people come to the gym so they can look better naked. For many people -- the so-called "skinny fat" demographic -- that's going to mean gaining muscle mass to improve their figure and lower their body fat percentage. For others that are legitimately overweight or obese, a BMI over 30, they need to also lose bodyweight to reduce their adipose tissue. Strength training is a great...

Robert Santana and Trent Jones are no strangers to the DIY concept, and embrace the idea of learning and trying things for yourself. With any do-it-yourself endeavor, however, you're going to encounter a fair amount of mistakes and setbacks in the process of learning a new skill. Fitness is no exception, and while a few have successfully DIY'd themselves to a high level of fitness, most people fai...