Barbell Logic

Matt and Scott talk to powerlifter, wrestling coach, and author Zach Even-Esh about his strength and coaching journey and how he has looked back to the lifters of yore for inspiration. Zach is the founder of The Underground Strength Gym and the author of The Encyclopedia of Underground Strength and Conditioning published by Dragon Door. He also hosts the STRONG Life Podcast.

Nutrition expert Robert Santana, RD (and soon to be PhD) joins the podcast again to talk about the Big 3 supplements: protein, BCAAs, and creatine. Today's episode covers protein and BCAA supplements. Most of us know that protein is an important macronutrient, and that we should eat some. But how much is enough? And where should it come from?

Matt and Scott have received numerous emails about finance questions, many related to Scott's philosophy on investing. While these are good questions, investing could be considered the "intermediate" phase of personal finance, and Matt and Scott would be remiss to skip over the "novice" phase: gaining freedom from debt and freeing up cash flow for other productive uses. This episode focuses on their thoughts about debt management, and why paying off debt is the first step to gaining freedom in your life.

Matt and Scott explore the reasoning and application of the "knees out" component of the Squat and Deadlift model in Starting Strength. While knees out is an important element in the teaching model, we need to understand exactly what we are trying to accomplish with its use. For those with knee slide and knee valgus issues, it's equally important to understand when to use the cue and when NOT to use it.

Following this weekend's Arnold Classic 2019 -- a panoply of strength sports, bodybuilding, and fitness industry players -- Matt and Scott sat down over coffee to shoot the breeze and discuss some of the weekend's events. After pondering the incredible size and strength of the strongmen, Matt shares some stories from his own pro strongman days.

Matt and Scott discuss the nature of learning and how it applies to effective coaching. They emphasize that teachers (and coaches) serve as guides during the process of instruction, leading the lifter (in our case) toward the correct movement pattern. However a coach can't actually perform the movement for the lifter, the lifter has to do it herself. Consequently, the actual learning takes place in the lifter's mind; in other words, they discover the correct movement. The coach merely reveals the path.

Matt and Scott take a break from programming to revisit a cherished subject -- whiskey. Frequent guest and fellow whiskey connoisseur Robert Santana returns to offer his opinions. We'll be hearing more from "Bobtana" in the future on training supplements, but today we turn to the more universal supplement of whiskey. The group discusses their current favorite whiskeys, old standbys, and which bottles have stood the test of time after years of exploration and experimentation.

In the MED Toolbox and SRA episodes, Matt and Scott discussed strategies for managing stress: the good kind of stress -- training stress. Unfortunately, for most adults training stress is not the only kind of stress they have to manage. There are the many curveballs that life throws: financial stress, job stress, family stress, death of loved ones. These stressors can be grouped into the category of "unproductive stress," yet they need to be accounted for and managed in your training program all the same.

Matt and Scott are back with another round of Q&A, answering listener-submitted questions from IG, FB, and email. In today's podcast they answer: 1.) How do you train while traveling? How do you find a good gym on the road? 2.) Who are your favorite lifters to watch? 3.) How do you learn how to be a risk-taker (in business)? 4.) What are your persistent form problems? What are your "swing thoughts" before the lift?

In the second episode of the MED Toolbox, Matt and Scott address a problem unique to intermediate trainees: what do you do when recovery becomes an issue? We know that stress must increase in order to drive continued strength adaptations. However, for most intermediate trainees, especially older trainees, recovery between individual workouts will become an issue. The challenge, then, is to design a program in which systemic stress increases over time, but strategically reduce stress in individual workouts.

By now, Matt and Scott have made a logical case, founded on the SRA model, for increasing stress in order to continue progressing beyond the novice phase of training advancement. Moreover, they have argued that incremental stress should be applied with a minimum effective dose methodology, that is, using the smallest incremental amount of stress to continue driving adaptation. In today's episode, Matt and Scott outline some of the practical tools in the coaching toolbox for making changes to your program.

They may seem trivial, but warm-ups are an important part of the strength training process. Unfortunately many people either fail to do them properly (or at all), or they overdo them, missing the point that warm-ups are, well, a warm-up. Popular slogans like "our warm-up is your workout" don't help the matter, implying that the warm-up must be an intense, drawn out matter. The warm-up serves one purpose: to prepare us for the work sets, where we will actually impart the stress necessary to drive adaptation.

Over the last few years the "discipline" movement has gained full steam. From retired special forces like Jocko Willink and David Goggins touting the benefits of waking up at 4:00am, to Mr Money Mustache calling his followers to face punch their finances, the internet is awash in discipline pep talks. However, is white-knuckle discipline really the right approach to cultivate lasting habit change?

Matt and Scott continue their discussion of the Stress-Recovery-Adaptation model with an exploration of the recovery aspect. Plenty of articles on the web tout the benefits of "active recovery," but is there really such a thing? In Starting Strength, recovery is viewed as a relatively simple process driven primarily by food and sleep. Recovery, therefore, could be defined as an absence of stress. Adding more (non-productive) stress in the name of "active recovery" doesn't make sense.

Barbell Logic will always be about training and the myriad benefits it has on our lives, but even training is sometimes about... well, not training. In other words, life detrains us over time: as we age, as major events take over our time, as our priorities change. These moments serve as opportunities for us to re-evaluate our goals and change our methods, if needed. Through it all, the barbell is constant.