Matt & Scott developed the concept of Minimum Effective Dose programming (MED programming) through conversations on the podcast. Today, Matt and Scott discuss how to apply the principles of MED programming when PRs are behind you. Listen to Scott's podcasts: Online Great Books , Music & Ideas , or Growing Resilience . This typically occurs for older clients with high-compliance (though even younger clients who have trained consistently for a long enough time run into this problem). If yo...
Aug 02, 2022•54 min•Ep. 420
Enjoy the rest of Matt catching up with Scott for this 2-part episode. Matt & Scott discuss some of what Scott has been doing on his homestead, and just chat about things. Listen to Scott's podcasts: Online Great Books , Music & Ideas , or Growing Resilience . Learn how Scott's reading the book the Restoration of Christian Culture caused Scott to move his family out to the country and start a homestead operation, growing food, planting trees, raising chickens, and living more simply (sim...
Jul 29, 2022•31 min•Ep. 419
Enjoy the return of Scott for this 2-part episode, where Matt & Scott catch up, discuss some of what Scott has been doing on his homestead, and just chat about things. Listen to Scott's podcasts: Online Great Books , Music & Ideas , or Growing Resilience . Learn how Scott's reading the book the Restoration of Christian Culture caused Scott to move his family out to the country and start a homestead operation, growing food, planting trees, raising chickens, and living more simply (simple,...
Jul 26, 2022•33 min
Are fitness certifications worth it, worthless, or does it depend? Niki & CJ walk you through how to consider the value of a fitness certifications as a barbell coach or personal trainer. Are Fitness Certifications Worth It? Personal trainers and barbell coaches have proliferated as the health and fitness industry grows. Fitness certifications also abound, and you can probably find a personal training certification for any niche or skill you would want to learn. Are they worth it? It depends...
Jul 19, 2022•29 min•Ep. 417
Matt & Niki discuss visual cues for lifting: how to best use them in-person & online, common mistakes to avoid, & some helpful examples. Visual Cues for Lifting When used properly, visual cues can reduce the time & words needed to get the lifter squatting or deadlifting or pressing with proper form . Used incorrectly, they can confuse and get lifters trying to mimic something inappropriate for them. Visual cues help with stationary, simple technique elements that can often be dif...
Jul 12, 2022•37 min•Ep. 416
Niki & CJ discuss what makes a bad strength coach and how to avoid the pitfalls of bad coaching. Being not bad, a very good place to start. Bad Strength Coaching Let's face it, we've all experienced a bad professional at one time or another. Whether they were unprofessional, rude, incompetent, sleezy, inattentive, we can all relate to the experience of knowing we're dealing with a bad professional. So what makes a bad strength coach ? Bad barbell coaches fall short in at least one area of co...
Jul 05, 2022•38 min•Ep. 415
Matt & Niki explore tactile cues: different types, how & when to use them for in-person and online coaching. Oh, and how do you pronounce tactile? Is it like "tactical?" Tactile Cues vs Verbal & Visual Cues Tactile cues, as you may have guessed, involve you as the coach or an object touching the lifter. Visual cues show the lifter how to properly lift. Visual cues explain (hopefully clearly) how the client should move. Tactile cues use the sensation of touch to deliver information to...
Jun 28, 2022•31 min•Ep. 414
The coaching transition can be hard, as you have to budget time, money, or both with a steep learning curve & avoid potential pitfalls. Niki & CJ help you learn how to make the coaching transition to become a good coach. Also, learn the correct pronunciation of CJ's last name! Coaching Transition - Let's Go So, you want to be a coach!? Awesome. You'll have to move from your current non-coaching state & bring coaching into actuality. Of course, there's the leap of faith method, where ...
Jun 21, 2022•39 min•Ep. 413
Today, Matt & Niki delve into verbal communication - our primary means of communication as a coach, both in-person & online. While this may seem straightforward, many steps occur to correctly communicate to our clients & get them to move correctly. This begins & 3-part series of sorts where Matt & Niki will explore communication, beginning with verbal & touching on tactile & visual (and the differences between in-person and online). No video this week for YouTube view...
Jun 14, 2022•40 min•Ep. 412
Nerd out on pain science, what it's like doing scientific research, getting papers published, and what we understand about pain interventions for humans. Jayson Ball, staff coach & PhD student, rejoins the podcast with CJ Gotcher. The Pain of Scientific Research What does science look like from the trenches of laboratories, where experiments are designed and executed, papers are submitted and defended, and knowledge is furthered? Jayson is mid-way through a PhD program. He has transitioned f...
Jun 07, 2022•46 min•Ep. 411
How do you end your cooking rut? What do you do when your go-to foods bore you? Niki Sims & Nikki Burman have tips & tricks to re-energize your cooking & meal preparation, so you don't turn to unhealthy, convenience foods that take you away from your goals. End Your Cooking Rut It’s easy to grow sick of the same meals, get burnt out by cooking, meal preparation, grocery shopping, and all the other steps (including eating) that go into healthy, sustainable nutrition. Tackle this thorn...
May 31, 2022•33 min•Ep. 410
Are there too many coaches!? Learn how to stand out, find clients & provide value as a coach in a seemingly flooded coaching market. The Flooded Fitness Market Are there too many coaches!? Learn how to stand out, find clients & provide value as a coach in a seemingly flooded coaching market. With social media & the internet, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the quantity of personal trainers, content creators, and coaches trying to find a piece of the fitness market. Niki & CJ can h...
May 24, 2022•37 min•Ep. 409
Online coaching is better than in-person coaching. It provides more value to the coach and client, enabling greater flexibility, personalization, and effectiveness. Online Coaching is Better Since Barbell Logic began providing online coaching, we have offered it almost apologetically, only as a backup if you lacked in-person access to a great professional barbell coach. We have changed are thinking on online coaching's value. Online coaching is better than in-person coaching for most people most...
May 17, 2022•51 min•Ep. 408
Burnout can occur in any pursuit or career path, but can be particularly noxious for careers coming from passion. Coaching fits that bill certainly, as no one comes to coaching to make billions. So, acknowledging that burnout exists and can happen, how do we avoid it (or stop it if we find ourselves burnt out). What is Coaching Burnout? Burnout isn't being tired. Maybe the analogy in training is that it's not the soreness or exhaustion that one hard workout can create, but rather the buildup of ...
May 10, 2022•43 min•Ep. 407
How do you set yourself apart as a coach? One way is knowledge. Understanding the fundamentals that underlie anatomy, physiology, programming, technique, and platform coaching will differentiate you from the typical personal trainer. Set yourself apart with knowledge. It's easy to get a personal training certification. Even earning a degree in exercise science offers no guarantee of competence as a coach. Have a basic understanding of science. Anatomy & physiology are key here. Get a high sc...
May 03, 2022•35 min•Ep. 406
Niki & CJ discuss overcoming imposter syndrome as a coach. The address what it is, why it's normal, when you may be beyond your abilities, and practical tips to deal with it. Learn more about overcoming imposter syndrome as a coach. Doubt, fear, and anxiety is normal. With coaching, or really any venture, you will likely experience internal self-doubt but may also have a fear of being discovered or exposed as a fraud or imposter. This appears and persists despite evidence to the contrary. Re...
Apr 26, 2022•35 min•Ep. 405
Niki & CJ Gotcher discuss how to determine your values, identities, and priorities (VIP). These underlie WHY, HOW, WHAT, and FOR WHOM you coach. Learn about what these are and how you can more consciously develop and refine these over time (they aren't set in stone). Whether we do so consciously or not, we have some notion of our coaching VIP. Something brought us to coaching our friends or family or diving a bit more deeply into why we might train a certain way or how training can be more e...
Apr 19, 2022•48 min•Ep. 404
Consistency leads to PRs and meeting your goals, more than any other factor (form, programming). Nikki Burman, Director or Client Experience & Exclusive Coach at BLOC, discusses how as a coach she helps others and how a lifter she personally achieves consistency. Learn how to never miss a workout. Nikki often talks to clients who are considering quitting training and online coaching with BLOC, and her approach is "let's find a way to make this work." What this means if not forcing the way on...
Apr 12, 2022•46 min•Ep. 403
Lots of people execute novice programming repeatedly, and even in advanced programming a lift is being increased through novice programming. So, how do we think about novice programming, returning to it, and how it really differs from true advanced programming? Following MED programming principles, we follow a simple yet hard program because it is effective. The simplest program is the manipulation of one training variable. For a strength novice, typically, this means increasing intensity in a l...
Apr 05, 2022•36 min•Ep. 402
Training means you have a script or program that you follow, but whether by your choice or life circumstances, you may have to or want to go off script. So, if you're a novice and have to or want to go off script, how do you navigate the potential difficulties and tradeoffs of going off script? 0:00 BL1K! 21:53 RIP Papa Reynolds 24:53 Off Script as a Novice Lifter As a novice, you can progress quickly. For strength, this means that if you graph your progress of the weight on the bar for your lif...
Mar 29, 2022•58 min•Ep. 401
Tanner Guzy joins Matt & Niki to talk style & its effects on how you look & feel. Check out Tanner Guzy and his style coaching https://masculine-style.com/ Improving your style isn't about showing off or strutting around. It's about self-respect and adorning your body with clothes that help make you feel and look good. Tanner points out that when he's looking and feeling good, he's thinking LESS about his appearance and better able to be present and really spend good time with friend...
Mar 22, 2022•49 min•Ep. 400
We return to the foundations of programming before we jump off into more advanced programming discussions in upcoming podcasts. Why are simple, hard programs the most effective? How do we decide what to do out of the countless options. The concept of MED evolved out of the idea that what coaches were doing, as opposed to simply jumping from one program (novice linear progression) to another program (some HLM or Texas Method variant), was making small changes to modify LP that led to the intermed...
Mar 16, 2022•37 min•Ep. 399
Choosing a coach can be daunting, but we can help guide you with what to look for and avoid when you're choosing a coach (and how to evaluate a coach once you're being coached). Andrew provides some helpful frameworks that may be more familiar to listeners: hiring an employee or choosing a contractor or company. We're essentially outsourcing a part of our life to someone who should be able to help us move toward our goals. Whether we don't have the time, bandwidth, expertise, or detachment to co...
Mar 08, 2022•34 min•Ep. 398
Matt, Niki, & Andrew discuss building habits to achieve your goals. You have habits now, and your results (along any potential access: finances, health, deadlift) are the summation of your habits. One isolated act by itself does not effect excellence, but one action as part of a years of actions does. Continuing your habits is easy. It requires no real energy to continue your habits. Like momentum, it requires energy to change the trajectory of your life. You have to intentionally work to st...
Mar 01, 2022•46 min•Ep. 397
Cardio, conditioning, energy systems training: what are these, are these the same, and why would you do them? In this episode, we come to terms with cardio. Let's first consider your training and exercise background. This often affects how you think about this. Some come from a more purse powerlifting or bodybuilding background, where the goal is building muscle or improving strength. A different background may be a cardio-centric, where you ran, did cardio classes, or CrossFit, where conditioni...
Feb 22, 2022•52 min•Ep. 396
Fear, doubt, it's a part of life & certainly a part of self-improvement, strength training, & nutrition. Find some inspiration and practical ideas for how to overcome your fears and doubt. This isn't just for beginners. Doubt is typical as we begin anything new, as the unknown can overwhelm us. There are known unknowns but also unknown unknowns. We might be afraid of embarrassment or looking silly. We might fear getting injured or failing. Let's acknowledge that change and new things can...
Feb 15, 2022•47 min•Ep. 395
Matt & Niki discuss goal setting: clear goals, digging deep to identify your whys, and how different personalities can effectively develop goals. If you're trying to lose weight, get stronger, change your nutrition, gain muscle you've at some point identified you'd like to make change the direction of your life. Whether you formally identified your goals or made a quick decision, somehow you identified you didn't like where you were and shifted the trajectory of your life. What can often hap...
Feb 08, 2022•42 min•Ep. 394
Matt & Niki discuss the tradeoffs of training in a home gym or commercial gym and how to build your home gym. Learn the equipment and gear to prioritize versus the nice-to-haves as well as the minimum amount of space required to have a functional home gym. Not all commercial gyms are created equal. The big box or Globo Gyms may allow you to barbell lift, but deadlifting and chalk may be prohibited. Some gyms are simply not worth your time. Long contracts or the inability to do the four main ...
Feb 01, 2022•42 min•Ep. 393
Why do we emphasize strength as opposed to other physical attributes, and if we value strength, how do we achieve it. Niki & Matt explore WHY you should get strong & how to get strong. Strength--and the process of getting strong--produces lasting changes in our body. Our body changes to the stress we impose on it, with denser bones and bigger, more capable muscles. This changes how we interact with the world every day. Like unlocking a new ability for a character in a videogame, strength...
Jan 25, 2022•46 min•Ep. 392
Gillian Ward joins Matt & Niki to discuss how to get started with nutrition: identifying your goals, understanding where you are now, and implementing sustainable, realistic nutrition plans. Gillian is a great simplifier of complex information and focuses not on the science of nutrition (though she knows it) but rather behavior changes and how to best modify clients' actions to meet their goals (for the action both to occur and move them toward their goals). A client must first acknowledge a...
Jan 18, 2022•56 min•Ep. 391
