Can you believe it’s been nearly 3 years of running the cult? By this point, most people in our shoes would have had their final Kool-Aid party, ran out of followers after inaccurately predicting the apocalypse too many times, or simply had the law catch up with them after too much credit card fraud and polygamy. But nay! We still stand (err sit) before you, preaching the gospel THEY don’t want you to hear. That’s right, this pirate radio station isn’t going anywhere (at least until one of the big corporations we hit up for an ad partnership on the daily finally responds)! Join us for this 150th anniversary Iron culture reflections episode…and thank you for listening!

We get questions all the time like “is squatting more than twice a week overtraining?” Or, “how much volume is overtraining?” But what is the actual scientific definition of overtraining, do lifters actually experience it, and what does overtraining result in? In this episode we do a deep dive on the topic of insufficient recovery, some of which falls under the umbrella of overtraining, and some of which falls under the umbrella of under-eating. Ultimately, by the end of this episode you’ll walk away with a true understanding of what overtraining syndrome, functional and non functional overreaching, mechanical overtraining, and low energy availability are, which should be on your radar, and what to do about them. 

Chad Landers has over 30 years of experience as a personal trainer. He started as a young trainer, working for others as an employee or a contractor, as most trainers do, but eventually became a gym owner. More importantly, his gym has survived in LA, an incredibly saturated and competitive market, through both the mid-2000’s financial crisis as well as the recent COVID epidemic. He’s prioritized value-based teamwork, developing relationships, evidence-based knowledge, understanding of history, good communication with a client-centered, individualized approach, and coupled that with a strong foundation of basic financial knowledge and planning. Because of this approach, he’s had the fortune of working with clients long term, had the experience of working with high profile clients, helped other trainers develop their careers, and he is essentially the model of how to make personal training a long term, feasible, and rewarding vocation. Chad Landers, the 2018 NSCA Personal Trainer of the Year, joins Iron Culture to share his knowledge in this enlightening episode. 

We’re back with Part 2 of our discussion on “What the Fitness Industry Gets Wrong About Obesity”, this time we move from a discussion about the divide between the diet and anti-diet narratives, and the role of the coach, and bring on a clinician. Dr. Spencer Nadolsky AKA “the doc who lifts” is an obesity and lipid specialist physician who works in the real world, on a day-to-day basis with his patients with obesity. He has to assess with each patient the potential risk and benefits of attempts at weight loss, what approach to use, and when medical interventions should be considered. Join us to learn how he has changed his opinions over time, the current state of the evidence, and how he constantly evolves his approach of communicating with his audience in order to hopefully educate, without doing harm. You don’t want to miss this episode of Iron Culture!

Returning guests Dr. Gabrielle Fundaro and Dr. Ben House discuss how the divide in the nutrition community spurred by the “diet” and “anti-diet” debates can potentially lead to inaction and subsequent unaddressed problems. When there is a passionate debate across a moral divide, data often goes by the wayside. This occurs when obesity-focused practitioners and researchers don’t acknowledge pathways to improved health other than weight loss, or the potential harm from weight loss attempts which are often unsuccessful. Further, it can occur when weight-neutral-focused practitioners and researchers don’t acknowledge that in some cases, weight loss is the outcome with the largest potential to positively impact health, or that multidisciplinary evidence-based approaches result in successful weight loss maintenance much more often than other approaches. In the middle is the trainer or nutrition practitioner who is aware of all the problems, but unsure of what tools will solve them, and is also worried that some of the tools have the potential for doing harm. In this conversation, we hope to equip you with the understanding of what tools are best in which situations, so you can become a part of the solution. [Further Information] https://www.deconstructnutrition.com/is-weight-loss-healthy/ [Dr. Gabrielle Fundaro] https://www.instagram.com/vitaminphd https://www.vitaminphdnutrition.com/ [Dr. Ben House] https://www.instagram.com/drbenhouse https://www.deconstructnutrition.com/

Are you useful? I don’t know, but we’ve got the author of this amazing book back on! That’s right, none other than physical culture revivalist Chip Conrad. This time, it’s storytime as we catch up with Chip after our last chat way back in July of 2019. Learn how he used to spend weekends at Mel Siff’s house talking exercise science in the sauna, how he interviewed all the strongmen champions competing at the Arnold Classic, how he has a more recent book that he wishes Omar and I would promote instead of his older one, and why he’s currently traveling across the US to train in the wilderness. 

Another duo episode? Some say it’s because we’ve burned every bridge with every guest we’ve ever had on, but the truth is we just can’t get enough of each other. In this episode we discuss how mental fatigue can impact training, based on some interesting research on the topic, and how being distracted in certain ways can potentially help skill acquisition. After this brief research review, we dive into the main course, which is to discuss the following questions: when is it the right move to take your foot off the gas? How do you know when to be content with moving into a maintenance phase? Do people normally take their foot off the gas before they actually hit their peak? What type of mentality is needed to keep pushing and break plateaus as an advanced lifter? Join us as we discuss these challenging topics that eventually all serious advanced lifters struggle with. 

Velocity-based training, you’ve probably heard of it and have a vague understanding of what it is, but don’t fully grasp it. That’s about to change with this episode as we bring two experts on to discuss it, both of who are literally doing their Ph.D.’s on topics related to it. Landyn Hickmott, MS is a powerlifting coach, semi-pro hockey player, creator of RTS’s new velocity-based training course, and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Saskatchewan. He joins Ivan Jukic, MS a strength and conditioning coach and Ph.D. candidate at Auckland University of Technology, actually studying under Eric, on iron culture today to talk through everything velocity based training from the concept, to how it works, it’s weaknesses, strengths, limitations, and unique applications like monitoring, feedback, and both load and volume auto regulation.

The creatine kingpin, Dr. Darren Candow is back to update us on what’s happening in the world of creatine research and explain the many myths that still prevail despite decades of published studies. How can creatine both dehydrate you and cause water retention? Does creatine really cause hair loss? Do you need to load creatine? Does it matter if you take it pre or post-workout? And is the optimal dosage for bone health and other clinical uses the same as it is for performance and body composition? Find out the answers to these questions and more on this comprehensive creatine update with professor Candow!

In this episode of Iron Culture, we address the questions “How long can I keep progressing or maintain my peak as I get older? and "What can I do to stay at my best for as long as possible?” After our previous metabolism myths episode, where we discussed how many age related effects come much later than most think, we wanted to do a follow up to focus specifically on performance, recovery, and how long strength and physique athletes should expect to still be at their best. Tune in, as you might be surprised just how long an athlete can be at their peak.