Barbell Shrugged

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

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