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

This week on the Barbell Shrugged podcast we welcome Dr. Steven Platek, Neuroscience Professor, Crossfitter and gym owner, contributor to Power Athlete Radio, and current member of the NPGL’s Miami Surge. Yeah, he’s a busy guy.    Those are impressive credentials, but I actually didn’t know any of it at the start of our interview. I just knew that Steven was a really sharp guy, and yes, he was strong as hell. Earlier that day at the Las Vegas NPGL Combine he absolutely destroyed the deadlift ladder, lifting close to 4,500 pounds in total in less than 60 seconds, and finishing with a lift of 585 pounds. Not bad for a Master’s level Crossfitter, right? Really, it’s amazing. It was no surprise that Miami took him when they had the chance.    There’s a clear niche for Master’s level competitors within this new sport of Grid. No, Steven and most Master’s level athletes simply cannot get away with the super-high training volume that some of his teammates and competitors require in order to make progress. A huge pri

Several months back the entire Barbell Shrugged crew called into the 50th episode of Power Athlete Radio. We had a blast chatting and bullshitting with the entire Crossfit Football crew, so I knew this interview with John Welbourn was going to be great. But I’ll be honest. I did forget just how big he is.    At 6 ft 5 in and 310 lbs, this man is not your average Crossfit Coach. John reminds me of Tony Robbins’ larger, more athletic, Warrior/Mercenary brother. To borrow a phrase from the fantastic movie Shallow Hal, shaking that mitt of a hand really was like grabbing a bunch of bananas.    Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing people in the sport of fitness. Athlete’s are getting fitter by the day, while also getting strong enough to compete nationally as competitive lifters. That’s extraordinary. But that said, the world of the NFL is a few level’s up, to say the least. Just check out this video of John and his former colleagues warming up before a “WOD.” Your Fran time is awesome, dude, but I don’t thi

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are busting training myths with our old college buddy Dr. Andy Galpin, Professor and Researcher at California State University, Fullerton.  This is Andy’s third appearance on the show. We first got together to chat about muscle physiology way back on episode 19. Most recently, he helped us break down the science of mixed martial arts with the one and only Bas Rutten on episode 91 (this is also the show where Mike get’s kicked in the balls by Bas, a classic moment indeed). Those were both awesome shows, but this latest discussion was probably our best so far. Maybe we have the combination of Glenlivet and the bright California sunshine to thank for that.  After a bit of catching up we got right into some training myths, starting with a common misconception in the fighting community. These athletes are a lot like Crossfitters, in that they are very driven. They train very hard, and they generally do everything they can to improve performance. Effort isn’t the problem. The real i

This week on Barbell Shrugged we have the pleasure of welcoming the big man, Aja Barto back to the show. In case you missed it, make sure to go back and check out his last appearance on Episode 76. It’s always a great conversation.    We caught up with Aja at the 2014 USA Weightlifting Nationals in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our chat came before his turn on the platform, but I knew he was going to put up some large numbers. Just look at his recent training. At 6 foot 5 inches and 220 pounds of bodyweight, Aja has put up a 250 pound strict press, a 520 pound back squat, a400 pound squat jerk, just for starters. That’s very impressive. I wasn’t surprised to hear that he later snatched 310 pounds and clean and jerked 352 at the meet. Hey, not too shabby for a Crossfitter, right?   It actually might be more accurate to call Aja a Weightlifter, at least for the time being. He made news earlier this year when he decided to sit out the 2014 Crossfit season in favor of pursuing Weightlifting full-time. His reasoning was s

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are honored to be joined by Kevin Ogar. Just in case you aren’t aware, Kevin became well-known after fracturing his spine at a competition in January 2014.     It’s only been six months since that devastating, notorious injury, but Kevin seems remarkably recovered, at least spiritually and emotionally. You should have seen him smile wide when he was telling us about the bright white Stacie Tovar shorts he was wearing underneath his pants. “Yeah, I’m actually wearing them underneath here. I heard she was going to be over at the Barbells for Boobs tent…I thought I would challenge her to a booty-shortshowdown.”   That group has been so supportive and caring for Kevin and his family these past few months, causing a bit of a stir at their Crossfit Games tent would be the least he could do in return. Also, it would just be a good time. That’s one of the lesson’s that Kevin has taken away from the injury. “Now that I’m in a wheelchair I really like to push the limits of what I can ge

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are joined once again by the one and only Kendrick Farris, two-time Olympian for USA Weightlifting, tattoo aficionado, part-time comedian and all around amazing dude.    Just in case you missed Kendrick’s first two appearances on the show, make sure you go back and check outepisode 55, as well as episode 76. Trust me, you never want to miss out on what he has to say.    Kendrick always gets us fired up when he speaks, but it’s quite another to actually see Kendrick lift. Imagine, a man his size easily tossing almost 500 pounds overhead, or easily squatting 550 pounds rep after rep. It’s incredible. On the world stage this guy is as strong as any lifter his size, period. The Olympics are always a really tough competition for the United States, sure, but I for one can’t wait to see Kendrick on the Rio platform in 2016. The Barbell Shrugged crew will be right there in the stands, sipping Caipirinha’s and cheering him on as loud as we possibly can.    To get that damn good, you wo

Info on our Road To Regionals programming.

Info on our upcoming 6 Month Muscle Gain Challenge.

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are joined by the incomparable Travis Mash, high level strength coach, world champion powerlifter, and to be honest, one of our absolute favorite human beings in the entire world.    If Travis’ name sounds familiar it’s for a good reason. This is his second appearance on the show. The first time around on episode 97 we got the chance to talk about the barbell and all of the life lessons it has taught us. As good as that show was, I think that round two is even better. Really, this might be our best strength discussion to date.   For me it’s easy to see what makes Travis such an incredible coach. First, he is incredibly kind and empathetic. Right when you meet him you feel like you’ve known him all along. And when you see his work you realize just how important it is for a coach to build strong relationships with their athletes. That connection makes extraordinary strength possible.   He’s kind, but he’s also been around for a really long-time (it’s OK, we’re all getting older

This week on Barbell Shrugged we chat with Ben Greenfield, former tennis player, water polo athlete, and bodybuilder turned biohacking ironman, endurance coach, author, blogger, and podcaster. That’s quite the resume, right?  Ben’s got plenty of interesting things to say, which is no surprise given his experience and wide-ranging creative pursuits. He can certainly talk training and human performance with the very best, but it was his perspective on general health that grabbed my attention initially.  Ben is the author of the excellent book Beyond Training: Mastering Endurance, Health, & Life, which is amusing, because as he will tell you devoting huge chunks of time to sitting in front of a keyboard and writing extensively about health is one of the absolute unhealthiest things you can do. Extended promotional book tours and frequent promotional travel are certainly no better.  That’s bad, but did you know that intense exercise can be worse in many ways? As Ben will tell you, competitive athlete’s and WO

This week on Barbell Shrugged we have the pleasure of welcoming Lindsey Valenzuela to the show, professional fitness athlete and current member of the Los Angeles Reign.    Lindsey is in an incredible position. First, she’s one of the very first women ever to sign onto a professional fitness team. Better yet, the Reign, and all other founding members of the National Professional Grid League, are actually coed.    That’s right. For the first time there is a mainstream professional sports league featuring women and men competing together on the very same field, or in this case, the very same “Grid.”   In competitive fitness, right from the start, men and women have both received equal spotlight and attention. The same can’t said for any other professional sports league, or quite frankly, our culture as a whole. Despite our progress, most playing fields are anything but level.    The truth is that women and men are equally capable when it comes to moving heavy barbells, crushing races, and entertaining an arena

Aubrey Marcus might have the most interesting title of any Barbell Shrugged guest to date. You can call him a spiritual experimentalist, human optimizer, unconventional fitness junkie, and warrior poet. He’s also CEO of Onnit, a unique human performance company which sells performance and health supplements, as well as some novel training tools. They also make some pretty righteous YouTube videos, including this jewel with Joe Rogan. Watch that video right now if you’re in need of a motivational kick in the ass! Aubrey’s interest in human optimization began during his basketball career. With the help of his step-mother, a naturopathic doctor, he was able to experiment with all manner of supplements and develop a regimen to aide his performance on the court. That’s really a huge advantage, especially when you consider that most young athletes are 100% uninformed on the topic. They are completely subject to marketing spin and are left to experiment on themselves, which is obviously less than ideal. First things

This week on the Barbell Shrugged podcast we are joined by Andrea Ager, former collegiate track & field athlete turned high-level Crossfit competitor. If that name rings a bell it’s for a very good reason. Andrea is one of the most well-known and recognizable athletes on the scene, which is actually a very interesting topic of discussion all in itself.    “You may know Andrea from her Instagram feed, where she can’t stop smiling.” I figured this topic would come up at some point during the podcast, I just didn’t realize it would be the very first thing out of Mike’s mouth. “In fact, Chris Moore has described you as, ‘Smiling too much.’”    The obvious downside of being well-known is that there will always be haters and trolls, that’s for sure. They are going to comment about you, your style, your choices, your beliefs, your mistakes and short-comings, and yes, even your smile. I was ready to take all that on at the start, I just didn’t expect being called one myself!    Mike was smiling just as wide as An

This week on a very special bonus episode of the Barbell Shrugged podcast we are joined by Jackie Perez, competitive Crossfit athlete and one of the lead trainers at Crossfit CSA in Dublin, California.    If you haven’t heard about Jackie then you’re in for a treat. She’s one of the most entertaining and unfiltered guests we’ve ever had on the show. If you do know her, well, you can guess what happens next. Let’s just say you’re in for a treat.    I’ll be honest, we spent the first half of the show talking about partying, the sensual pleasures of almond champagne, and how she really doesn’t take her training all that seriously. You won’t find too many pearls and nuggets at the start, but you’re very likely to laugh out loud a few times. Enjoy the banter, but understand that this party side of Jackie is really just a ploy, a facade, a clever bit of misdirection. As we learned during the second half of the show, there’s actually way more to Jackie than first meets the eye.    Here’s what you need to understand

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are honored to chat with Mark Divine, retired Navy SEAL Commander and founder of SEALFIT and U.S. Crossfit. Surprise, surprise, this show will leave you reconsidering your training, the true effort you’re applying in the gym, and the direction you’re heading. In short, its just what you need to hear.  For those who don’t know, SEALFIT is somewhat like Crossfit, only it’s more…Way more. Quite literally, this is what your whiteboard should say if the goal of the day is to prepare Navy SEALS for the rigors and chaos of military conflict. It’s also the sort of thing we should all experience from time to time if we want to be fully prepared for the rigors of civilian life. These lessons, to one degree or another, are for special forces bad asses and civilian warriors alike.  Mark’s training philosophy centers around the so-called “5 Mountains” of personal development. First, there’s the stuff any crossfitter, strength athlete or serious fitness enthusiast would recognize. The mount