Barbell Shrugged

Dr. Eric Trexler returns to Barbell Shrugged to break down one of the most misunderstood subjects in fitness: how the body adapts to dieting, exercise, and energy restriction. Eric, a Duke University researcher with a PhD in Human Movement Science, joins Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash to explain the constrained energy expenditure model, why cardio does not always produce the linear calorie burn people expect, and why the context of your diet matters. They cover metabolic adaptation, under-fueling in endurance and weight-class athletes, and why the body creates more friction as you get leaner or try to train hard on a fixed calorie budget. The crew also gets practical about fat-loss plateaus, "weight-loss resistance," diet breaks, refeeds, and reverse dieting. Eric explains why tracking errors often masquerade as metabolic problems, why getting extremely lean carries real performance and lifestyle tradeoffs, and why slower timelines are often the smarter move. He also shares what the researc

In this episode, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane break down everything athletes need to know about protein: what it does, how much you actually need, and how to make it work in the real world. They dismantle the myth that the body can only use 30–35 grams per meal, explain why protein needs should scale with lean body mass and training goals, and show how distributing protein across three or four meals can support muscle growth, recovery, and performance without obsessing over a narrow post-workout window. The conversation then compares animal and plant proteins, whole foods and powders, whey and casein, and the potential role of collagen for connective tissue. They explain why the calories accompanying a protein source matter (beef ribeye, chicken breast, lentils, and peanut butter deliver radically different amounts of fat, carbohydrates, and fiber) and how your choices should change when gaining muscle versus losing fat. From ready-to-drink shakes and egg-white blends to pre-bed protein a

In this episode, Doug Larson joins Coach Travis Mash and Dr. Mike Lane to break down what it takes to build a scalable strength and conditioning program for police officers. Mash shares his new partnership with the Winston-Salem Police Department, beginning with a six-week, 15-person pilot designed to refine onboarding, testing, training, and ongoing monitoring before expanding to roughly 600 officers and support staff. The team explains why tactical fitness must be built around a job-task analysis: officers may spend hours sitting in a patrol vehicle, then suddenly need to sprint, grapple, drag a person, or make a high-stakes decision while wearing a vest and duty gear. The conversation covers how to assess reactive strength, tissue readiness, total-body power, relative strength, aerobic capacity, and repeat-effort conditioning without injuring or overwhelming the people being tested. They examine why generic standards like a mile-and-a-half run or 175-pound dummy drag may not fully reflect real-world demand

In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, blood flow restriction specialist Dr. Michael MacPherson joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to break down how BFR training can be used for far more than post-injury rehabilitation. Michael explains how strategically restricting blood flow creates a hypoxic environment that increases type II muscle fiber recruitment, metabolic stress, and cellular swelling—even when training with relatively light loads. The result is a powerful tool for building or maintaining strength and muscle while reducing the mechanical stress placed on joints and connective tissue. They also discuss limb occlusion pressure, why cuff design matters, and why modern BFR protocols don't need to be brutally painful to work. The conversation expands into practical applications for athletes, lifters, and anyone looking to improve performance or recovery. Michael explains how BFR walking, cycling, leg curls, Nordics, plyometrics, and even passive recovery sessions can be incorporated int

Dr. Sean Pastuch sits down with Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to talk about what he's learned the hard way about chronic pain, discipline and how to get back to training pain free. Pulling from his new book *Live More, Hurt Less*, Sean breaks down why so many lifters end up organizing their entire life around avoiding pain, and how that strategy inevitably makes training less fun than it used to be. He shares his own story of dealing with seven years of debilitating neck pain, and how nothing changed until he finally had a compelling reason to change it. That meant hiring a coach, getting serious about sleep and nutrition, delegating the stressors he was carrying, and making recovery the highest priority in his life. The conversation digs into how the story you tell yourself, the things you do every day, and the people you surround yourself with either reinforce your limitations or help you take your agency back. Sean gets practical about how to actually talk to doctors so you can get what

In this episode, 10-time CrossFit Games champion Thomas Miazga joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to share the extraordinary path that took him from a childhood shaped by cerebral palsy to the Paralympic Games, elite adaptive CrossFit competition, and beyond. Tom reflects on discovering freedom and athletic identity in the water, qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics just 18 months after returning to competitive swimming, and how a devastatingly close miss for the London Games eventually led him toward coaching, CrossFit, and a new definition of what was possible. The crew also digs into the practical side of training an adaptive athlete: building strength around the individual, managing high upper-body training volume, using stable equipment to create safe loading opportunities, and prioritizing training economy over unnecessary technical complexity. Tom explains how CrossFit transformed his independence in daily life, helped him become a 10-time Games champion, and continues to f

Cody McBroom joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to break down what separates a list of exercises from real coaching. As a strength coach, online coaching business owner, and host of the Choose Hard podcast, Cody works with "advanced general population" clients who have tried to train and diet but still cannot connect the dots. The crew gets practical about why many people fail to progress: they are training too far from true effort, cutting ranges of motion short, or following a program without understanding how hard the work should feel. Cody explains how thoughtful exercise selection, rep ranges, video feedback, and clear progression can help online coaches create programs that are harder to misinterpret—and more likely to produce results. The conversation then moves past macros and reps into the real challenge of coaching: behavior change. Cody shares his framework for helping clients build self-control, self-discipline, self-belief, and ultimately self-respect by tying health goals to

Former Division I and professional basketball player Gini Grimsley joins Doug Larson, Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to discuss one of the hardest transitions in fitness: going from competitive athlete to normal life without losing the identity, structure, and physical capability that sports provided. Gini explains why former athletes often struggle to stop comparing themselves to their younger selves—and how the desire to prove what they can still do can lead to unnecessary pain, injury, and frustration. The team explores how athletes can redirect their competitive drive, establish new performance goals, and build a training routine around who they are today. Gini also breaks down her current approach to lifelong athleticism, including strength training, conditioning, plyometrics, unilateral movements, rotational work, and reactive activities such as pickleball. She explains how modifying exercises can preserve intensity while reducing orthopedic stress, why adults should rebuild tissue tolerance before jump

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we welcome Dr. Andy Fry to the show. Dr. Fry is a pioneer and legend in the world of strength and conditioning and someone who helped shape my career long before this podcast existed. He served as an advisor and mentor to both me and Dr. Andy Galpin during our early years at the University of Memphis. He's one of the most impressive scientists in the industry, with approximately 300 research papers produced by him and his teams over the years, all dedicated to learning what really works to improve human performance. He's done more than almost anyone on the planet to push the industry forward. He's a true professional, an excellent scientist and educator, an overall great guy, and someone for whom I have an enormous amount of respect. If you're curious about where the science and practice of strength training started and how it has improved and evolved over the years, this episode is for you. Enjoy the show!

This week on Barbell Shrugged, Brian Newman joins Doug Larson and Dr. Mike Lane to talk about getting stronger, recovering from hard training, and staying healthy enough to keep doing what you love. Brian spent years working in professional baseball and now serves as Director of Health, Performance, and Safety for Fort Worth Fire. He explains how he trains firefighters who don't have an off-season and might get called out in the middle of a workout. We talk about moving in heavy gear, building a program around the squat, hinge, push, pull, and carry, and why getting crushed by a workout doesn't necessarily mean you're getting better. We also get into what it takes to come back from an injury and actually perform well again. Brian explains why your wearable can't tell you everything, how to adjust training when you're not recovering, and why strength coaches and medical staff need to talk to each other throughout rehab. Whether you're training for a sport, doing a physically demanding job, or just want to keep

I've been a fan of velocity-based training since I first experimented with it in 2005. After three four-week blocks, I hit PRs across my weightlifting and powerlifting lifts while really enjoying the training itself. It felt like I was running sprints in the weight room. Full speed, not to failure, full rest. Fun and effective. The work felt easier on my body, yet I felt faster and more explosive than I had before. So getting to sit down with Dr. Bryan Mann, the person who brought VBT into the mainstream, was a conversation I'd been looking forward to for many years. We talk about where velocity tracking adds value, how the approach can fit different athletes, when it's useful, when it's unnecessary, measurement devices, and how to use it for maximum results in strength and power development. I came away reminded why I've loved this style of training for so long. Enjoy!

In this episode, veteran strength coach Robb Rogers joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to explore what decades of coaching collegiate athletes, professional teams, and military operators can teach us about building lasting performance. From the St. Louis Blues to special warfare, Robb explains what elite performers share, how tactical demands change the training equation, and why trust and personal accountability are essential to effective coaching. He shares how he builds programs with experienced athletes and chooses exercises around the person, their goals, and the demands they need to meet. The conversation turns to getting stronger while keeping the ability to move well. The crew discusses the trade-offs of training to failure, using jumps to assess readiness, and maintaining mobility, elasticity, and movement skills alongside heavy lifting. Robb explains why the movement pattern matters more than the implement, while Travis and Mike share how a narrow focus on powerlifting affected

Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash and Dr. Mike Lane break down strength and conditioning for MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, with a heavy emphasis on speed and power endurance. Doug shares lessons from his own fighting and coaching experience, including how he structures heavy bag intervals and a simple way to progress fight-specific conditioning. The crew covers aerobic fitness, recovery between rounds, and why your conditioning needs to reflect the muscles, movements and pace you actually use when you compete. They also get into assessing and developing strength, mobility and work capacity, why strength can't replace technical skill (especially in jiu-jitsu), and how confidence in your defense lets you commit to your offense. If you train or coach combat sports, this one will help you find what's holding you back and make your gym work carry over to the mat or the ring. In this episode Doug's path from taekwondo to wrestling, jiu-jitsu and fighting MMA Full-speed heavy bag intervals: hold the pace, rest when it

Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash and Dr. Mike Lane break down power training for masters athletes and why staying strong doesn't automatically mean staying explosive. They discuss the age-related loss of fast-twitch muscle fibers, the demands that jumping and sprinting place on connective tissue, and why returning to explosive training requires a gradual progression. From jump rope and basic hops to hill sprints, box jumps, and squats paired with jumps, the crew explains how to rebuild the ability to move fast while preparing the body to handle rapid force production and landing. The conversation expands beyond vertical jumps to the rotational and lateral power athletes use in jiu-jitsu, striking, tennis and everyday life. The crew shares practical options, including medicine ball throws, kettlebell movements, Olympic lift variations, agility drills and short sets of explosive burpees, and explains how to choose movements that fit your joints and training history. They also discuss using velocity and power feed

Dr. Ben Steel returns to Barbell Shrugged with Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to talk about how hormone replacement therapy and GLP-1 medications can affect thoughts, feelings, and behavior. A licensed mental health counselor and certified mental performance consultant, Ben draws on published research and what he has seen with clients to explore the psychological side of testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and other compounds used to improve physical performance. From mood and motivation to drive and energy, the conversation looks at dosing, what "optimal" really means, and when it may be time to reassess a protocol with a clinician. Doug and Travis share their personal experiences with GLP-1 medications, including changes in training motivation and enjoyment. The crew also discusses the difference between replacement and bodybuilding doses, the gap between physique and self-image, and why changes in how you think, feel, and behave deserve attention alongside your lab results.

American Ninja Warrior competitor and coach Jonathan Godbout joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to break down his preparation for a 24-hour Murph world record attempt. His target is 20.5 rounds in a 20-pound weight vest. That adds up to 41 miles of running, 2,050 pull-ups, 4,100 push-ups, and 6,150 air squats. Jonathan shares what he learned from completing 12 Murphs in 14 hours during training, how he plans to pace each round, and why familiar foods like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Rice Krispie treats have become part of his fueling strategy. He also explains how deliberate strength and conditioning, Murph-specific work, and physical therapy have shaped his preparation. The crew also explores the strength behind Ninja Warrior performance, from weighted pull-ups and grip endurance to lower-body power, jumping, and sprinting. Jonathan explains how he tailors training to each athlete while balancing explosive performance with endurance, sleep, and recovery. His world record attem