This week we interview John Glaude. John is not your typical athlete or coach. He is not in the Games, nor does he study myofascial release. We first caught wind of John via his youtube channel. He used to weigh over 300 pounds, throw back 2 liters of soda a day, and the only training he was getting in was a DDR session at his local arcade. A lot has changed since then, and he has since lost over 180 lbs and is hitting two a days in the gym.    We wanted to bring John on the show to talk about motivation, and hear about his journey. John is a bad ass story teller and has created a brand called Obese To Beast where he shares his journey to help others create change like he did.    He is a humble dude, but also has a lot to say. If you have any friends who are just getting started on their fitness journey or would benefit from hearing John's story, this episode is a great one to share.   Enjoy the Show,   -Mike

More dangerous than your opponent is your mind. If it doesn’t support you, you’re beaten before you’ve started. There are really only two types of fear: biological and psychological. -Tony Blauer When does fear come up- That moment you step up to a heavy barbell… When you are getting hit on by someone attractive at a bar… When you are speaking up to a new group of people… snakes… spiders… Fear is always driving us. Our awareness of it is more important than thinking we can ignore it or make it go away.  Tony Blauer has dedicated his life to knowing fear, and learning/teaching others how to manage it. He works with fighters, military units, CrossFitters, and everyone in between. We brought Tony on the show to talk about fear and how we can understand and manage it as athletes. As humans, the fear is build into the programming …the macho “I’m not scared” mentality is as much a lie as it a shitty strategy. Fear is biologically built into us, and ignoring it is impossible. However understanding it, and reacting quickly and appropriately to it is what leads to success in your endevours ....and getting out of bad situations.  We cover the psychology of fear, chat about street fights, and dive into functional movement and personal defense.  Tony runs a section of CrossFit education called CrossFit Spear. It isa full depth course going into the practice of self defense. You can learn more about it at CrossFit.com enjoy! Mike

This week we’re back with the crew and have a fun episode to share with you.    We had Kenny Kane and Andy Galpin join us at our local outdoor training spot in Encinitas. We wanted to bring Kenny on to talk about his ideas on coaching and this concept we all have heard about called mastery. Kenny has been in the coaching game for as long as CrossFit has been around, and started CrossFit Los Angeles in 2004. He has worked with 1000s of athletes and now is most passionate about working on helping coaches get better at coaching.    Kenny shares with us the evolution of his coaching experience and dives into concepts such as how he sets up his programming at CFLA and how to plan out specific styles of training days, to some deeper ideas like "the difference between doing athletic things and being an athlete, and how to find purpose in your training.    Give this show a listen to hear our thoughts on the topic. Then I want hear what this means to you.    You might reach enlightenment, or just get a few laughs and some new knowledge at the least.   Maybe this will motivate you to choose something a little more specific, put a deadline on it, so it will get your @$$ in gear.   If you’re feeling bored with your current program, tired of training without purpose, and want to have a blast working toward a common goal with a bunch of other super motivated people, come join us and see what is possible.   This week, the doors open for the Muscle Gain Challenge. We built this program for those who want to get stronger, build more muscle, and lift heavy. We are now accepting new athletes into the program. If you want to add some serious muscle mass, get stronger and boost your confidence with heavy barbells, then we are looking forward to having you in our program! To learn more and register, head over to musclegainchallenge.com

How do you get big? That is the million dollar question. Everyone in the fitness industry seems to have a different answer for you, and they all claim to have the secret sauce. Take this supplement. Use this rep scheme. Drink this before you go to sleep. It goes on and on. We wanted to see what science has to say about this, and invited Andy Galpin on to this week's show along with Kenny Kane to talk about the science of getting big. We go deep into understanding what our bodies need to put on muscle, and how we can shift our training focus on this adaption goal.   In the show, Andy outlines the three mechanisms of hypertrophy. Can you guess what they are?

Jacked up shoulders holding you back? New's flash, you are not the only one. It turns out that shoulder pain and injuries are some of the most common of all dysfunctions for active individuals.   Just like most things we have come to learn and share with ya'll is that this is most likely a result of faulty movement patterns. You can go as hard as you want, and lift heavy things for days ..but the flip-side of that is that you have to take the time to focus on your movement. Believe it or not, it is also a good idea to take care of your joints with the same amount of focus you put into your WOD's ...a few minutes rolling around on a lacrosse ball ain't going to cut it.    So knowing that, we headed over to Ambition Athletics to interview one of our good friends, Max Shank. We chatted it up about movement, kettlebell training, and a bunch of other cool shit he is doing in his gym, and around the world with his workshops.    More importantly, we talked about the shoulder, how it operates, and how we can take care of it so we can go hard and still feel healthy and strong.    If you find this episode useful, Max has put together a resource for the Shrugged fam on taking care of your shoulders. You can find it at daily.barbellshrugged.com/maxshank

It's officially 2017 and many of you are setting goals for the upcoming journey around the sun. Whether your goals are fitness oriented or have to do with your relationships, we encourage you to take action on them. We also think that you will get some useful take aways from this week's episode with Doctor Kirk Parsley when it comes to your 2017 intentions.    This week we had Doc Parsley come by to talk to us about the importance of sleep. You might be asking yourself, what sleep has to do with your new year's resolution? Well it turns out sleep has everything to do with most developments in our life. Everything from physical adaption, to skill acquisition, to emotional development (i.e. relationships) happen during your sleep cycle. Shitty sleep equals shitty performance gains, mood, sex life, and anything else you want to get good at.    Doc Parsley works with some of the top performers in the world ranging from Navy Seals, CEO's, and Professional athletes, however you don't need to be in the NFL or lead a company to get some gains from this episode.    If you want to learn more about Doc P's work and his sleep product, you can find it here http://sleepcocktails.go2cloud.org/SHR

We drop into MovementRX this week to talk all things mobility with Theresa Larson and Anders Varner. We dive into lower back pain and how you can identify and fix the source of the pain in the body. Fact: 8 out of 10 humans (both athletes and couch potatoes alike) have some sort of lower back pain, and most of the time the pain is caused by some sort of imbalance or weakness somewhere else in the body.  Theresa and Anders bring to light some "oh shit" points on how our daily habits can be the cause of our pain. They also debunk some assumptions around mobility, and physical therapy. You can learn more about MovementRX at movement-rx.com and get their free guide on fixing lower back pain at lower back pain here    

What's good Shrugged crew. This week we are coming at you with a familiar guest, Brian Mackenzie. For those of you who don't know him, Brian is the founder of CrossFit Endurance, the author of Power, Speed, Endurance, and works with some of the top athletes in performance sport, such as CrossFit, surfing and endurance athletics.  We dropped into RVCA headquarters to chat with Brian about a performance metric that is so often not talked about, breath. We dive deep into how you can use breath as a tool to control the nervous system, and bring your training to the next level by simple learning how to tap into your breathing pattern We also get into how Brian is using things like ice bathes, sauna, and the unique combination of the two to control the body. We brought Brian on the show to chat about performance breathing, but naturally, we couldn't stop at that. We get into training philosophy, nature integration, and a bunch of topics to get your gears turning in a new way.   

This week on BARBELL SHRUGGED we interview PJ Nestler of Velocity Sports Performance. We talk about speed training and misconceptions around this training adaption. We discuss: What true speed training looks like How to test if your athlete is ready to work on a speed training session  How to apply speed training in your program  

This week on BARBELL SHRUGGED, we head up to La La Land to kick it at Deuce Gym with Logan Gelbrich. Logan is the owner of Deuce, an open air CrossFit box in the heart of Venice, California. He also leads the CrossFit Strongman Course and is a modern renaissance man when he is not leading the Deuce Gym tribe. In this episode we discuss: How Strongman training can be applied for any level of athlete How to be a master in your specific fitness modality (gymnastics, weightlifting, etc.) while also having a dynamic view on training as a coach How to build a coaching culture that is focused on growth  How to have an intelligent relationship to intensity in your training based on your current level of fitness and lifestyle