The lifting community is more siloed than it used to be, and it is larger, so it’s understandable why today we have a broad and varied cultural landscape. It’s also more complex now in the modern age, and you can find parallel communities in the same lifting discipline with very little crossover. Further, in each community, the changing of the guards seems to be happening at an increasingly accelerated rate. The lifters, coaches, voices, and perspectives of today in any given subculture, don’t seem to be the ones of yesterday. More so, the time between “today” and “yesterday” feels like it’s getting shorter. Why is that? What role does social media play? Should we be concerned? Most importantly, what is the things that don’t change? How do we use this information to avoid a “dark age”? Join us today on this episode of Iron Culture as we discuss the wild world of lifting, from an almost anthropological perspective, ultimately coming away with a deeper understanding of what unifies and what also persists beyond any single person.

Getting really really lean is something a lot of people do, from physique athletes to fitness models, to serious lifters with a lifting-related bucket list. But staying really really lean, is something very few people ever achieve, despite most who get shredded wondering at least once,  “could I maintain this?” Why is it the case that most people struggle to stay shredded? Indeed, there are the few who seemingly can walk around shredded 24/7, and if you believe your Instagram feed, or are involved with specific sports at an elite level, you might think it’s a relatively innocuous achievement. Regardless of where you sit in terms of your observations, if you want to know what physiological, psychological, and environmental factors influence how lean you can stay, this is the episode for you.

Examine is arguably one of the most important resources to the supplement consumer in existence. Haven’t heard of it? Imagine a third-party, expert-informed, wiki page on human research on nearly every supplement in existence, organized in a clear, logical, and informative manner, and you’ve imagined Examine. Today, we sat down with one of its founders, Sol Orwell, to learn about how and why it started, and where its future lies. Given people are still falling for insincere supplement marketing today, this is a conversation that’s just as important as ever.

We are joined by the reigning 76kg world champion and now the strongest deadlifter on the women's side of the IPF, fresh after returning from the 2022 IPF worlds in South Africa. Jessica came away with a squat and deadlift world record, the latter of which she had to pull in order to win, tying the equipped IPF champion Agata Sitko, beating her on bodyweight, who had thrown her hat into the ring at classic worlds. What did Jess’s build-up look like? How was the cut? How did nearly two days of travel impact her performance? How do Eric and Jess operate as coach and athlete? And how did having two of her protein bars stolen by monkeys impact her mental state? Join us to learn all of the above!

Sometimes you just gotta shoot the s**t and talk some s**t. In this episode of Iron Culture, we discuss some of the recent insane competitions in the world of powerlifting. If you live under a bridge, you might not be aware that a ton of ridiculous numbers were put up across almost every weight class at IPF classic worlds as well as USAPL mega nationals. In addition to this, we both had some things to get off our chests. Omar shares that some of the snake oil, aka turkesterone, being sold online…get this…doesn’t even contain very actual much snake oil (aka actual turkesterone). Additionally, Eric lets off some steam about some bothersome trends in sports science...that’s right tune in for some serious nerd drama! This isn’t one to miss folks, what better way to spend your Monday than listening to us bitch and moan on a variety of topics!

Motivation is for the weak, commitment is for the REAL lifers! Right! Right? Well maybe not so much. Join us on an existential journey into what motivation really means. What are our motives to train, how does this relate to our identity, and self determination? In this episode we comment on our observations of long-time lifters’ motivation to train in the public eye, and how that intersects with the research on motivation, identity and meaning. You might just come away with a better understanding of the meaning of lift.

In this Q&A episode, we address a few great questions, the first of which, on how does periodization for hypertrophy works, resulted in a deep dive by Mr. Dr. Eric Helms on the topic. You’ll learn about the definition of periodization, how it applies to hypertrophy goals, the rationale for periodizing specific variables, and what gaps we have on this topic. Finally, we discuss what we do know, and logically what’s reasonable to periodize and how. To wrap up, we answered questions on what gym equipment Omar is planning to get for his home gym, and also how NSAIDs impact gains. 

Your training environment, it’s a variable we all acknowledge as being relevant and important, but it’s rarely discussed in depth. In this episode, we give this topic the attention it deserves. What are the pros and cons of commercial gyms of various types? What are the pros and cons of home gyms? Collectively, we’ve both been personal trainers in multiple gym and studio environments, and personally, we ourselves have trained in a wide array of commercial, boutique, hardcore, specialty, military, and community gyms. In this episode we do a deep dive on how to find and cultivate the best training environment possible for one’s personality and goals. 

Saturated fat, it gets a lot of attention, but there’s not much consensus in this attention…at least in influencer conversations. However, the research on the health impacts of saturated fat are reasonably consistent in terms of scientific consensus. Beyond the impact of saturated fat on health, often in bodybuilding circles discussions on the effects of saturated fat focus on testosterone. However, does saturated fat have a meaningful effect on testosterone? In this episode we’re joined by returning guests Alan Flanagan, and Spencer Nadolsky, both experts in the topic, to discuss. 

This week we are joined by new IPF super heavyweight 2021 world champion and 2x US national champion Jesus Olivares. We’re all familiar with Ray Williams, one of the most impressive lifters of all time, who holds the highest IPF total currently at 1112.5kg, which he put up in 2019 at the age of 32. Amazingly, Jesus put up an 1110kg total just recently at Powerlifting America nationals at the tender age of 23. He’s only a few weeks out from Worlds and we were fortunate enough to sit down and learn about his history, his mindset, and his training. Are we on the cusp of a new era in the IPF super heavyweight division?