It wasn’t that long ago that we didn’t have iPhones in our pockets, let alone access to the world’s information at the click of a button. Back in the day, coaches and athletes had to figure shit out on their own.  Nowadays, the fitness industry is growing faster than ever, and with that comes new innovations and knowledge around training. That is mainly due to the fact that coaches and athletes are communicating and sharing their experience more and more.  We wanted to hear from one of the top coaches in the game on this topic, so we headed over to Bonsall, CA to visit Mike Burgener. Coach B has watched this evolution occur and has been apart of some of the biggest evolutions in the sport of weightlifting and strength training.  In this episode, Coach B shares his insights into the fitness industry as it is today, and tells stories of what it was like in the beginning. We talk about why most athletes who want to go from pretty good to competitive need to start focusing on training their weaknesses. Mike shares tactics and his philosophy around getting strong, the coaches that he works with, and how he gets his athletes to the next level. If you want to learn how to break through your plateau’s and start understanding how to train your weaknesses, you need to drop in for this one. Enjoy the show, Mike  

We all see the cool shit on Instagram- the handstands, the backflips, the one handed balance thing on the fire hydrant, but want is not often highlighted on the social media is the process it takes to get to that skill level. In this week’s show, we brought back Max Shank to talk about how you can incorporate more movement development into your training. Max has been on the show before and we recently recorded an episode with him talking about healthy shoulders. You can find that episode here. This time around, we visited Max at his backyard gym to talk about what is often referred to as flow and how incorporating a movement practice into your daily routine can help you prep your body for hard training session later on.  Whether you are interested in pursuing higher skill level movements like acrobatics and hand balancing, or just looking to start your day with a routine that will prime your body to get shit done in the gym, this episode will get you on the right path to start pursuing more higher level movement awareness. The cool thing is, all you need is 5 minutes a day to get started, but first get your listen on with this episode. We also highly recommend you check out Max's 5 Minute Flow guide and instructional videos to help you decrease pain, stiffness and physical and mental stress. Go to barbellshrugged.com/fiveminuteflow to learn more. Use the code "barbell" (all lower case) to save 20% on 5 Minute Flow. Enjoy the show, Mike

"alignment is about balancing the motion with the chemistry. you can't fix your mechanics if your chemistry is off"   In Fitness, we talk about mobility, a lot. We talk about performance a lot, and we talk about exercise technique, a lot. But what is often left out is what is going on the rest of the day.   It turns out, how we move when we are not in the gym (which is most of the time) effects how we move (and secondarily, how we perform) in the gym.   No matter how active you are or how much you pay attention to your technique, you are going to have incompetencies and inbalances. One of the goals of an effective and intelligent training program is to uncover and seek out those imbalances and fix them.    In this week's episode, we visit the Human Garage in Venice Ca. Just like it sounds, the human garage is an (underground) body work clinic. The thing is, this place is not like any massage studio or chiropractic office you have been too. It is much more.    We talked to the owner/founder Gary about what is going on at the Human Garage and what they are doing to help their cliental, which include, professional athletes, Superhero movie stunt men, and the adrenaline junkies of the world, move better.   We discuss, what you can be doing to figure out imbalances in your movement patters, how to develop your posture, and how you can work towards having more awareness in your body for better performance, and health.   If you are ready to upgrade your movement practice, this episode is for you.    Enjoy the show, Mike

It seems like every other health article and Instagram post is trying to promote the next best supplement these days. It is very hard to get unbiased information on supplements. It is straight up confusing to feed through the hype and distinguish between clever marketing and what actual works.  Most sources? They have an agenda. Supplement companies misrepresenting science. Media sensationalizing headlines. Companies and individuals pushing unneeded supplements and other products onto you. We aren’t saying that all supplement companies are out to cheat you. There are some great brands and products out there for sure. However, it is not so simple to feed through all the noise. That’s why we brought Kamal Patel on the show. Kamal runs Examine.com. Examine is an unbiased database of supplement and nutrition information. What is unique about Examine, is that they have no monetary agenda around selling you products. They are pulling together all the science, reading the research, and putting it online.  In this episode, we catch up with Dr Andy Galpin and Kamal at Andy’s lab and talk about what supplements you should be taking and which ones are overhyped. If you want to settle the confusion around supplements and start directing your energy towards what works, this episode is for you. Also, if this show sparks your interest to tap into to more info, you can get access to premium Examine resources like their supplement stack guides and research digests to optimize your supplementation and stay on top of the latest supplement research. Save as much as 20% when you visit barbellshrugged.com/examine enjoy the show.  Mike

You ever think about how much you use your hands when you train? Think about it. When you are using a barbell, a kettlebell, the pull up rig, or a pair of rings, your grip strength is playing a huge role in your strength, how long you can perform the movement, and the level of movement capacity you have. More importantly, it is typically the first thing to give out.   In this week's show, we caught up with Andy Galpin and Kenny Kane at CrossFit LA to talk about how you can step up your game when it comes to grip strength. We dive into wrist mobility, gymnastics drills, and why you need to be training your grip in different positions.   Example: the 2015 CrossFit Games Pegboard challenge. Some of the strongest athletes in the world are throwing massive weight overhead, doing gnarly metcons, and performing kipping pullups for days ...but as soon as they are required to turn their hand position 90 degrees, their grip strength goes to shit. You can bet that the games athletes who fell apart in that event are going to be spending some time training their grip strength. You should too, and a great place to start is with this episode.    Enjoy the show, Mike

If you've been doing a few minutes on a rower and half-ass rolling on a piece of foam for your recovery, you may have already figured out it's not enough.   Our guest this week, Jill Miller, founder of Tune Up Fitness and author of The Roll Model, said it perfectly, "Healing happens in our restorative state".    Your body is an adaptive machine.    If you want to get stronger and faster, you need to put the same amount of attention on how your recover if you truly want to be able to access the most out of your body and training.   We spoke with Jill about how we can better prepare our bodies to push hard and stay healthy while training by recovering better.    Although Jill's background is in the yoga world, the information she shares goes far beyond warrior poses and OMing. She has an amazing amount of knowledge of the human body and has developed tools and practices on self care, particularly with fascial work and mobility.    In this episode, Jill shares her strategies and translates some the science behind down regulation, recovery, and how we can optimize and train our bodies to recover faster and more efficiently. Her information is as unique as it is important for hard-charging athletes.    You'd do well to tune in and listen.    Lastly, be sure to check out Jill's therapy self-massage tools and Yoga Tune Up programs designed to help you recover from training more effectively, relieve pain and stress, and improve balance and strength at her website here.  daily.barbellshrugged.com/tuneupfitness   Enjoy the show, Mike

This week on Barbell Shrugged we are going to show you how to take your performance to the next level. It is 2017. We are using technology, more than ever, to understand the body-mind connection and make them both stronger. This is the next level for performance and creating an optimal experience for you as an athlete. Helping us dive deep down this rabbit hole, Daniel Schmachtenberger tells us how to neurohack your athletics. Daniel is the Co-Founder and Director of R&D at Neurohacker Collective. With a background in many bio science fields with a unique focus on complex systems optimization, Daniel and his team are leading the pack in designing whole systems approaches to performance and athletic enhancement without side effects.  We dive into better solutions for PRE-WORKOUT, recovery, nootropics, anti-aging practices, the cutting edge protocols for hormone optimization, and all the things you can be doing beyond the basics. We are going deeper than we ever have when it comes to performance enhancement, and make your plateau a baseline again.  Learn more about Neurohacker Collective at barbellshrugged.com/neurohacker. Use code "barbell15" to save 15% on Neurohacker products and supplements Enjoy the show, Mike  

This week on Barbell Shrugged we interview Stephanie Gaudreau and talk about how to break through diet dogma. Stephanie is the founder of Stupid Easy Paleo, and has been helping hundreds of thousands of people change their relationship and habits with food. Unlike most food bloggers, Stephanie is not trying to convert you to her version of eating. On the contrary, she is actually quite fed up with the dogmatic rules that many of the people in the Paleo community project on others.  When we hear the word "Paleo" we automatically think of a set of rules around the foods we can and cannot eat. Although there is value around starting with a template, the truth of matter is, we are all different. We each have unique biochemistry, different preferences, and personalized goals. With that said "eating like a caveman" does not explain much about how to eat, and it often leaves people confused, and influences others to create false assumptions around what it means to adopt Paleo principles. We brought Stephanie on the show to break through the noise, and talk about how to develop your own unique version of eating that will help you thrive and reach your lifestyle and performance goals. Ladies, after the show be sure to check out the Stephanie's Women's Strength Summit. Get access to an extensive collection of over 30 interviews with some of the top female experts in the fitness and nutrition community, including interviews with pasts guests of Barbell Shrugged like Diane Fu, Dr.Theresa Larson and Julie Foucher.    Learn more about the Women's Strength Summit here at: barbellshrugged.com/stephanie  

I want you to meet Ray Regno. We met Ray on a Wednesday at Mike Burgener's gym as he was off to the side coaching an athlete, teaching how to activate the lats in the overhead squat. As you'll soon learn, Ray is a really smart coach. He is one of those coaches who has a drill or movement for everything. We got to talking to Ray and were impressed with just how knowledgable he was about movement. The coolest part is that Ray is mostly self-taught. Through an obsession with the CrossFit® Journal, observing and learning from good coaches, Ray has been able to rapidly up-level his coaching game in a very short time. In this episode we talk about the value of progressions in teaching movement, how to speed up your growth as a coach, and why you should hold your athletes more accountable for how they move. PS: To all the coaches (and aspiring coaches) out there, this one is a must listen. Drop us a line in the comments below and let us know what you found to be most valuable in this episode.    PPS: Give Ray a follow on the Insta- @rayregno ...he shares some great coaching content ...and if you ever make it out to San Diego, his gym, CrossFit Stronghold is a good place to add to your bucket list.

Performance Anxiety. It's a thing. Even the best athletes in the world fall victim to it. You put in the work, train hard, and hit the numbers you need to hit in order to be a contender. But when game day comes, something shifts. You question your capabilities, or tell yourself "I don't want to mess up or do bad".     It turns out there is a big difference between saying "I don't want to do bad today" and "I want to perform my best today". That may sound like some feel good nonsense but the truth is, our inner game plays a huge role in how we show up- in competition, in our relationships, and in pretty much all aspects of life. This week we traveled up to Venice Beach, CA to meet up with Mark England at Paradiso CrossFit. Mark is a language ninja and we dive into how the language we use directly effects how we think and perform.    Mark has some valuable information to share in this episode and has some real world examples of how we can develop the high level mental toughness (or as he puts it "mental finesse) to perform at our best.    We are excited to be offering something special for Shrugged fans in this episode. Mark runs a company called Procabulary. Whether you’re looking to build better relationships, achieve your peak performance goals, or establish a strong financial future, Procabulary provides the tools that support and empower you. The whole Shrugged team has gone through the course, and we have seen amazing results and highly recommend you consider investing in Mark's knowledge.    Use the Promo Code: "BARBELL" at check out to get $100 off the "Core Language Upgrade" Course