Barbell Shrugged - Talking Training W/ Crossfit Games Athletes, Strength Coaches & More

  If you've been doing a few minutes on a rower and half-ass rolling on a piece of foam for your recovery, you may have already figured out it's not enough.   Our guest this week, Jill Miller, founder of Tune Up Fitness and author of The Roll Model, said it perfectly, "Healing happens in our restorative state".    Your body is an adaptive machine.    If you want to get stronger and faster, you need to put the same amount of attention on how your recover if you truly want to be able to access the most out of your body and training.   We spoke with Jill about how we can better prepare our bodies to push hard and stay healthy while training by recovering better.    Although Jill's background is in the yoga world, the information she shares goes far beyond warrior poses and OMing. She has an amazing amount of knowledge of the human body and has developed tools and practices on self care, particularly with fascial work and mobility.    In this episode, Jill shares her strategies and translates some the science be

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are going to show you how to take your performance to the next level. It is 2017. We are using technology, more than ever, to understand the body-mind connection and make them both stronger. This is the next level for performance and creating an optimal experience for you as an athlete. Helping us dive deep down this rabbit hole, Daniel Schmachtenberger tells us how to neurohack your athletics. Daniel is the Co-Founder and Director of R&D at Neurohacker Collective. With a background in many bio science fields with a unique focus on complex systems optimization, Daniel and his team are leading the pack in designing whole systems approaches to performance and athletic enhancement without side effects.  We dive into better solutions for PRE-WORKOUT, recovery, nootropics, anti-aging practices, the cutting edge protocols for hormone optimization, and all the things you can be doing beyond the basics. We are going deeper than we ever have when it comes to performance enhanc

  This week on Barbell Shrugged we interview Stephanie Gaudreau and talk about how to break through diet dogma. Stephanie is the founder of Stupid Easy Paleo, and has been helping hundreds of thousands of people change their relationship and habits with food. Unlike most food bloggers, Stephanie is not trying to convert you to her version of eating. On the contrary, she is actually quite fed up with the dogmatic rules that many of the people in the Paleo community project on others.  When we hear the word "Paleo" we automatically think of a set of rules around the foods we can and cannot eat. Although there is value around starting with a template, the truth of matter is, we are all different. We each have unique biochemistry, different preferences, and personalized goals. With that said "eating like a caveman" does not explain much about how to eat, and it often leaves people confused, and influences others to create false assumptions around what it means to adopt Paleo principles. We brought Stephanie on t

I want you to meet Ray Regno. We met Ray on a Wednesday at Mike Burgener's gym as he was off to the side coaching an athlete, teaching how to activate the lats in the overhead squat. As you'll soon learn, Ray is a really smart coach. He is one of those coaches who has a drill or movement for everything. We got to talking to Ray and were impressed with just how knowledgable he was about movement. The coolest part is that Ray is mostly self-taught. Through an obsession with the CrossFit® Journal, observing and learning from good coaches, Ray has been able to rapidly up-level his coaching game in a very short time. In this episode we talk about the value of progressions in teaching movement, how to speed up your growth as a coach, and why you should hold your athletes more accountable for how they move. PS: To all the coaches (and aspiring coaches) out there, this one is a must listen. Drop us a line in the comments below and let us know what you found to be most valuable in this episode.    PPS: Give Ray a foll

Performance Anxiety. It's a thing. Even the best athletes in the world fall victim to it. You put in the work, train hard, and hit the numbers you need to hit in order to be a contender. But when game day comes, something shifts. You question your capabilities, or tell yourself "I don't want to mess up or do bad".     It turns out there is a big difference between saying "I don't want to do bad today" and "I want to perform my best today". That may sound like some feel good nonsense but the truth is, our inner game plays a huge role in how we show up- in competition, in our relationships, and in pretty much all aspects of life. This week we traveled up to Venice Beach, CA to meet up with Mark England at Paradiso CrossFit. Mark is a language ninja and we dive into how the language we use directly effects how we think and perform.    Mark has some valuable information to share in this episode and has some real world examples of how we can develop the high level mental toughness (or as he puts it "mental fine

This week we interview John Glaude. John is not your typical athlete or coach. He is not in the Games, nor does he study myofascial release. We first caught wind of John via his youtube channel. He used to weigh over 300 pounds, throw back 2 liters of soda a day, and the only training he was getting in was a DDR session at his local arcade. A lot has changed since then, and he has since lost over 180 lbs and is hitting two a days in the gym.    We wanted to bring John on the show to talk about motivation, and hear about his journey. John is a bad ass story teller and has created a brand called Obese To Beast where he shares his journey to help others create change like he did.    He is a humble dude, but also has a lot to say. If you have any friends who are just getting started on their fitness journey or would benefit from hearing John's story, this episode is a great one to share.   Enjoy the Show,   -Mike

More dangerous than your opponent is your mind. If it doesn’t support you, you’re beaten before you’ve started. There are really only two types of fear: biological and psychological. -Tony Blauer When does fear come up- That moment you step up to a heavy barbell… When you are getting hit on by someone attractive at a bar… When you are speaking up to a new group of people… snakes… spiders… Fear is always driving us. Our awareness of it is more important than thinking we can ignore it or make it go away.  Tony Blauer has dedicated his life to knowing fear, and learning/teaching others how to manage it. He works with fighters, military units, CrossFitters, and everyone in between. We brought Tony on the show to talk about fear and how we can understand and manage it as athletes. As humans, the fear is build into the programming …the macho “I’m not scared” mentality is as much a lie as it a shitty strategy. Fear is biologically built into us, and ignoring it is impossible. However understanding it, and reacting q

This week we’re back with the crew and have a fun episode to share with you.    We had Kenny Kane and Andy Galpin join us at our local outdoor training spot in Encinitas. We wanted to bring Kenny on to talk about his ideas on coaching and this concept we all have heard about called mastery. Kenny has been in the coaching game for as long as CrossFit has been around, and started CrossFit Los Angeles in 2004. He has worked with 1000s of athletes and now is most passionate about working on helping coaches get better at coaching.    Kenny shares with us the evolution of his coaching experience and dives into concepts such as how he sets up his programming at CFLA and how to plan out specific styles of training days, to some deeper ideas like "the difference between doing athletic things and being an athlete, and how to find purpose in your training.    Give this show a listen to hear our thoughts on the topic. Then I want hear what this means to you.    You might reach enlightenment, or just get a few laughs an

How do you get big? That is the million dollar question. Everyone in the fitness industry seems to have a different answer for you, and they all claim to have the secret sauce. Take this supplement. Use this rep scheme. Drink this before you go to sleep. It goes on and on. We wanted to see what science has to say about this, and invited Andy Galpin on to this week's show along with Kenny Kane to talk about the science of getting big. We go deep into understanding what our bodies need to put on muscle, and how we can shift our training focus on this adaption goal.   In the show, Andy outlines the three mechanisms of hypertrophy. Can you guess what they are? 

Jacked up shoulders holding you back? New's flash, you are not the only one. It turns out that shoulder pain and injuries are some of the most common of all dysfunctions for active individuals.   Just like most things we have come to learn and share with ya'll is that this is most likely a result of faulty movement patterns. You can go as hard as you want, and lift heavy things for days ..but the flip-side of that is that you have to take the time to focus on your movement. Believe it or not, it is also a good idea to take care of your joints with the same amount of focus you put into your WOD's ...a few minutes rolling around on a lacrosse ball ain't going to cut it.    So knowing that, we headed over to Ambition Athletics to interview one of our good friends, Max Shank. We chatted it up about movement, kettlebell training, and a bunch of other cool shit he is doing in his gym, and around the world with his workshops.    More importantly, we talked about the shoulder, how it operates, and how we can take car

It's officially 2017 and many of you are setting goals for the upcoming journey around the sun. Whether your goals are fitness oriented or have to do with your relationships, we encourage you to take action on them. We also think that you will get some useful take aways from this week's episode with Doctor Kirk Parsley when it comes to your 2017 intentions.    This week we had Doc Parsley come by to talk to us about the importance of sleep. You might be asking yourself, what sleep has to do with your new year's resolution? Well it turns out sleep has everything to do with most developments in our life. Everything from physical adaption, to skill acquisition, to emotional development (i.e. relationships) happen during your sleep cycle. Shitty sleep equals shitty performance gains, mood, sex life, and anything else you want to get good at.    Doc Parsley works with some of the top performers in the world ranging from Navy Seals, CEO's, and Professional athletes, however you don't need to be in the NFL or lead a

We drop into MovementRX this week to talk all things mobility with Theresa Larson and Anders Varner. We dive into lower back pain and how you can identify and fix the source of the pain in the body. Fact: 8 out of 10 humans (both athletes and couch potatoes alike) have some sort of lower back pain, and most of the time the pain is caused by some sort of imbalance or weakness somewhere else in the body.  Theresa and Anders bring to light some "oh shit" points on how our daily habits can be the cause of our pain. They also debunk some assumptions around mobility, and physical therapy. You can learn more about MovementRX at movement-rx.com and get their free guide on fixing lower back pain at lower back pain here    

What's good Shrugged crew. This week we are coming at you with a familiar guest, Brian Mackenzie. For those of you who don't know him, Brian is the founder of CrossFit Endurance, the author of Power, Speed, Endurance, and works with some of the top athletes in performance sport, such as CrossFit, surfing and endurance athletics.  We dropped into RVCA headquarters to chat with Brian about a performance metric that is so often not talked about, breath. We dive deep into how you can use breath as a tool to control the nervous system, and bring your training to the next level by simple learning how to tap into your breathing pattern We also get into how Brian is using things like ice bathes, sauna, and the unique combination of the two to control the body. We brought Brian on the show to chat about performance breathing, but naturally, we couldn't stop at that. We get into training philosophy, nature integration, and a bunch of topics to get your gears turning in a new way.   

This week on BARBELL SHRUGGED we interview PJ Nestler of Velocity Sports Performance. We talk about speed training and misconceptions around this training adaption. We discuss: What true speed training looks like How to test if your athlete is ready to work on a speed training session  How to apply speed training in your program  

This week on BARBELL SHRUGGED, we head up to La La Land to kick it at Deuce Gym with Logan Gelbrich. Logan is the owner of Deuce, an open air CrossFit box in the heart of Venice, California. He also leads the CrossFit Strongman Course and is a modern renaissance man when he is not leading the Deuce Gym tribe. In this episode we discuss: How Strongman training can be applied for any level of athlete How to be a master in your specific fitness modality (gymnastics, weightlifting, etc.) while also having a dynamic view on training as a coach How to build a coaching culture that is focused on growth  How to have an intelligent relationship to intensity in your training based on your current level of fitness and lifestyle 

And… We’re Back! I want to start off by recognizing our team of incredible coaches who stepped up and led the Barbell Shrugged show through the better part of 2016. Chris “CTP” Norman, Mike McGoldrick, Alex Maclin, Kurt Mullican, and Mike McElroy, we have have nothing but gratitude for your work. Doug and I are returning to the show stronger than ever with new vigor and we’re bringing Dr. Andy Galpin and Kenny Kane along for the ride. Galpin and Kane will be regular co-hosts and resident experts in their respective fields of Sport Science and Coaching. We’re excited that we will be able to create a really rich experience for you with their presence. On today’s show we dive deep into the future of CrossFit, and Strength and Conditioning. We also get into a great discussion about the future of coaching. It’s not going to look anything like it does today. From each one of our perspectives we share what we’re currently seeing and where we think it’s going. Enjoy!

To scale or not to scale?  That is the question.

Mike McElroy returns to the show and we talk programming.  If you've ever wondered where to even begin when thinking about designing a program this episode is great starting point.  We get asked all the time to do an introduction to programming concepts, so here you have it!  But by no means is this an end all be all discussion on programming, this is just meant to get the party started!  If you dig this we can delve deeper in future episodes.

The goal of the Shrugged Strength Challenge is to help you GET STRONGER & add 50 pounds to your squat, while IMPROVING YOUR CONDITIONING to drop your "Helen" time by 3 minutes, and improve your overhead movement & mobility. Now that might seem like a tall order, but it's already happening with our Shrugged Strength Challenge athletes.  We've seen it! In just 3 months of training our athletes have  dropped their "Helen" times by 2:30 on average! They've also gotten bigger squats and improved their mobility at the same time! So whether you've been training for a while or just starting your strength & conditioning journey we're up for the challenge! Following this program and sticking with it will help you with more than the things listed above.  Those are just our big goals to give us something to aim for.  Other goals we have for this include building a fun as shit tight knit online community, providing you accountability, and helping you with all the things you're going to have to master that g

Squat Injuries, Fixes & Myths w/ Dr. Aaron Horschig of Squat University