Today is episode 16 and out guest is Alex Piccirilli - one of the most effusively energetic and positive people I have the pleasure of calling a friend. Alex is a Certified Group Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer and RYT-200 Yoga Teacher who recently left Portland and moved to Nashville, TN. As a coach, Alex focuses on moving with intention and integrity, building confidence through strength, and holistically increasing performance in a fun and sustainable way. She grew up playing sports and ...
Oct 21, 2020•58 min•Ep. 16
Today we’re continuing our conversation about pain, and in particular today we’re talking about how it literally changes your brain. Because the experience of chronic pain is associated with multiple networks of the central nervous system, it is actually classified as a Central Nervous System Disorder with sensory, cognitive, emotional and behavioral elements. Long story short, the brain is a complex and interconnected structure - in the case of pain, the areas of the brain responsible for inter...
Oct 16, 2020•6 min
Today is Episode 15 and our guest is the Great and Powerful Zack Bartell . Zack Bartell is the sole owner of SoCal Powerlifting , located in Irvine California. He is a retired competitive powerlifter, and also works as a business coach to fitness businesses around the country, helping them grow and scale their own operations. On today’s episode, Zack takes us back to when his powerlifting career was ended prematurely due to injury and puts himself back in that moment when his entire identity was...
Oct 14, 2020•53 min•Ep. 15
It’s the little things we do that either moves us forward towards high achievement or pulls us backward towards the safety of low expectations. When most stop…keep going. Risk safety for uncertain. Let your values and principles serve as anchors during the inevitable storms that life sends your way Mike is back with another Motivation Monday segment! This one will help you shed the fear and mediocrity that comes with "the crowd." It might be just the spark you need break free and begin to live t...
Oct 12, 2020•8 min
Last week we began our conversation about pain and the importance of continuing to find ways to stay active and keep mobile even in the presence of pain. Today, we are going to zoom in a little bit and discuss Low Back Pain and the state of the literature as it relates to what does and does not work when it comes to exercises designed to rehabilitate chronic low back pain. In particular, we’re talking about the findings of a literature review published in December, 2018 that looked at various co...
Oct 09, 2020•6 min
Today is Episode 14 and our guest is Brad Farra. Brad is a sports chiropractor and the owner of Evolution Healthcare and Fitness in Portland, Oregon. Evolution is the Premier Integrated Healthcare and Fitness Facility in the Pacific Northwest, and a unique look into what many of us in the healthcare and fitness industries becomes common place - a single facility boasting Physical Therapy, Chiropractic, Massage, Acupuncture, Naturopathic Medicine and Dietetics along with a group of experienced co...
Oct 07, 2020•59 min•Ep. 14
Happy Friday! Let's talk about pain - and specifically, can you continue training when if you have pain? Short answer to a very complex question: YES...most of the time. There are some caveats to this answer, and LOT's more to talk about moving forward but here is the biggest take home from today's episode: If you are experiencing mild pain (At or below 4/10) you likely SHOULD continue to train with modification to ensure you aren't making your pain get WORSE during exercise. In general, our bod...
Oct 02, 2020•8 min
Hello My Friends! This is Episode 13 of The Essential Strength Podcast and our guest is Holly Myers . Holly is a coach and business owner based in Portland, Oregon. Along with her partner, Arryn, she owns Lift With Holly and Arryn - an online coaching business with the mission of Creating a Kinder Fitness Industry through Play, Awareness and Courage. The emphasis of their platform is coaching other coaches on how to get stronger and move more joyfully using barbells, kettlebells and other modali...
Sep 30, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 13
On today’s episode of Health & Fitness Friday, we’re talking about the importance of maintaining physical activity as we age, and how COVID-19, with all it’s health risks and policies, has made it harder than ever for older adults to get the recommended amount of weekly physical activity. To frame the situation, let’s quickly re-cap: COVID-19 becomes increasingly dangerous with pre-existing conditions, such as the types of chronic medical conditions common in older adults such as heart disea...
Sep 25, 2020•5 min
Hello friends! Welcome to another episode of The Essential Strength Podcast. After a week off that involved moving from Northern California to Phoenix, Arizona … we are back to our normally scheduled Wednesday full-length episodes and this one is particularly special to me personally because I had the chance to sit down with my brother, Steve Skolnik, to talk about the power of rhythm throughout history, and how much like strength, rhythm is ever present in our lives, and in the world all around...
Sep 23, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 12
Mike McCastle recently completed an Unlikely Labor , pulling a 2.5 ton truck for 10 miles along the Dalton Highway in freezing temperatures. This labor took him into the Arctic Circle, and beyond the what the vast majority of people may consider the limits of human achievement. But for Mike , this labor was more about relief than about the struggle. Relief from an anguished mind, struggling to come to grips with the loss of a previously planned labor, one that is a part of a series of tasks he h...
Sep 21, 2020•12 min
Hello friends, and welcome to this week’s episode of the Essential Strength Podcast! This is episode 11 and I had the pleasure of speaking this week with one of my best friends and fellow physical therapist Shai Sewell . We talked about his experiences as a physical therapist working with cancer patients, and also about what he learned from the time his mother spent battling cancer, and how her spirit and fight informed his decision to pursue this unique career and become an advocate not just fo...
Sep 09, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 11
There is a health emergency in this country, and it dates back far longer than this novel Corona Virus, COVID-19. But now, it's directly effecting our citizens risk of contracting the Corona Virus, as well as their risk of hospitalization and even death. We are a sick country, and unfortunately our system is set up to respond only after we become sick, rather then helping us find and maintain true health. It's a band aid approach to wellness that is not just failing us, it's literally doing us h...
Sep 04, 2020•6 min
Hello friends and welcome to Ep. 10 of The Essential Strength Podcast Today we are talking with the one and only Chase Chewning , host of Ever Forward Radio . We get into a lot of deep topics in this episode - from why people fear change to what happens in our own heads when we are left alone with our thoughts. Chase and David talked about quite a few books during today's episode, In no particular order, here are the books that were mentioned: 1. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight 2. Ego Is The Enemy by Ry...
Sep 02, 2020•59 min•Ep. 10
Welcome to Health & Fitness Friday on The Essential Strength Podcast! Today’s episode is supported by the amazing folks over at FNX Fit . FNX Fit is a Utah-based company committed to creating the highest quality nutritional supplements and training apparel to fuel your greatness . As a listener of the Essential Strength Podcast, you get 15% off of any purchase with the code ESSENTIAL at checkout! Let's talk about PSYCHOLOGY - the everyone’s favorite subject from their personal training cours...
Aug 28, 2020•6 min
Welcome to Episode 9 of The Essential Strength Podcast! Our guest today is Claire Zai . Claire is competitive powerlifter and holds a Masters of Science in Exercise Physiology from the University of Colorado. She currently lives in San Diego, where she works in a research lab while applying to Medical School, runs a small coaching business called BullZai Strength and contributes to group programming for Barbell Medicine. Claire has a story that I am sure many female athletes and lifters will rel...
Aug 26, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 9
Welcome to another edition of Health & Fitness Friday. Your weekly mini-podcast covering health and fitness knowledge that will leave you a little smarter and a lot more motivated in less than 10 minutes! The topic this week - Gym Buddies Most people have an intrinsic sense of why it’s good to have a gym buddy or a workout partner. But what does the research say? Is there more to it than just having a friend to keep you accountable? Researchers at the University of Aberdeen set out to answer...
Aug 21, 2020•6 min
Can emotional stress increase your risk of physical injury? That's just part of the question that today's guest, Shauna Ericksen, is attempting to answer with her PhD research. It's the type of question that could create a major shift in how coaches manage athletes, how athletes advocate for their own well being and have a ripple effect into so many other areas of sport. Shauna Ericksen is an Athletic Trainer with a Masters Degree in Sports Conditioning and is currently pursuing her PhD at Conco...
Aug 19, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 8
What is it that you love to do the most? We're talking specifically about things that involve physical activity - gardening, cycling, adult league softball, summer hiking, etc. Now - consider that your "Sport" Training and thinking more like an athlete, using concepts like off season training and in season training, can be the key to unlocking better performance in any activity you love to do. Whether than means using the winter to get your grip stronger and your low back stronger for those hous...
Aug 14, 2020•11 min
What if healthcare providers and fitness professionals worked together in an integrated system that built people up to become the strongest, healthiest, most resilient versions of themselves? Sounds amazing, right? Well, there are a handful of people laying the groundwork for this future, and today's guest is one of them. Dr. Michael Mash, PT, DPT, CSCS is the owner and founder of Barbell Rehab , an educational company dedicated to helping rehab and fitness professionals improve their management...
Aug 12, 2020•49 min•Ep. 7
Collagen Supplements - What are they, who should take them, where should you get them? Let’s actually start with that last point - where should you get your collagen supplements? Well, it just so happens that we have our first partner on the Essential Strength Podcast! Super stoked to say we are working with the great people at FNX Fitness, which is where I personally have been getting the majority of my supplements for the last 2 years - Including their Resilience Collagen By the time I’m done ...
Aug 07, 2020•4 min
Mark Bell has a saying - "Strength is Never a Weakness and Weakness is Never a Strength." Today on Ep. 06 of The Essential Strength Podcast, Mike and David had the honor of spending over an hour talking to the one and only Mark Bell about how strength plays a roll in his life inside and outside the gym. While most people are familiar with "Smelly" as the owner of Mark Bell's Slingshot and Super Training Gym, the man who has squatted 1,000lbs and continues to workout like a savage - we wanted to ...
Aug 05, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 6
Sleep deficiencies have both long term and short term impacts on your health. And while sleep is one of the most fundamental ways to improve our health and well being, it is also one of the easiest to overlook. In our modern world, full of endless entertainment and information, 33% of American Adults get less than 6.5 hour of sleep per night. As you'll learn in this week's Health & Fitness Friday mini-pod, habitual sleeplessness has both short and long term effects that are universally negat...
Jul 31, 2020•6 min
Achievement lies on the other side of struggle. Unfortunately, for almost all of us, our minds will persuade us to stop long before we find out just how much we can struggle and still overcome. Ultimately, that's what this conversation is about. David & Mike start by talking about how they approach hard training sessions, and what years of repeated exposure to physical challenges has taught each of them about their bodies and minds. As the conversation progresses, the discussion moves well b...
Jul 29, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 5
Happy Friday Everyone! David here to announce that we are launching a new component of The Essential Strength Podcast today called Fit & Healthy Friday!! Every Friday you will get a bite sized podcast covering a health and fitness topic that you can apply to your own life. Think of it as a little gift at the end of a long week, and something to take with you into the weekend as motivation to keep moving in the right direction - THE HEALTHY DIRECTION! Today, we're reviewing an article that wa...
Jul 24, 2020•5 min
Addressing obesity isn't as simple as "eat less, move more". On this episode we sit down with Dr. Cat Steele to learn how the food we eat literally changes our brain, why food cravings are so powerful, and what we each can do to support healthy eating choices. Dr. Cat Steele has a PhD in Psychological Sciences from Kansas State University, and completed postdoctoral work in Clinical Nutrition. She will be starting as an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Texas A&M International University ...
Jul 16, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 4
Get comfortable with your own mortality. While many people seem to act as if they will live forever, this is simply not the way things work. No one in history has ever escaped the ultimate exit plan - death. Along with birth, it is the defining characteristic of human life which unites all people regardless of class, religion, or nationality. Despite it's certainty, however, few people contemplate the reality of death because it's too grim. But what if something as certain and universal as morta...
Jul 08, 2020•54 min•Ep. 3
On Episode 2 of The Essential Strength Podcast, David & Mike sit down (virtually, of course) with Brian Buck, Director of Sports at Sparta Science. The conversation starts with an exploration of Brian's path to his current position; his education, his time as an outfielder in the Major League Baseball system, his mentors in the field of sports science, and his work as a Strength & Conditioning Coach in the pro sports industry. From there, the conversation shifts specifically to Sparta Sc...
Jun 30, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 2
Welcome to the FIRST episode of The Essential Strength Podcast. In this episode, David & Mike introduce themselves and share their backgrounds, including the vital role that STRENGTH has played during challenging times in their lives as well as how they have found the strength to succeed both personally and professionally. As the conversation evolves, David & Mike discuss the power of the mind to turn even the most bleak situations into joyful memories, the importance of finding foothold...
Jun 19, 2020•57 min•Ep. 1
