The Coaching Lab: Health, Wellness & Performance (Brad Cooper, PhD)

Brad Cooper, PhD (Catalyst Coaching)

Welcome to The Coaching Lab podcast, your trusted source for engaging, evidence-based, thought-provoking health, wellness & high-performance insights for those looking to improve their lives (or coaches/clinicians looking to enhance client outcomes). The Coaching Lab is the evidence-based journey toward better! If you've been looking for a health & wellness podcast that avoids the fluff and the headline-chasing fads while providing practical, real-world guidance, you just found it. We bring together the world's foremost experts, from world-class researchers and best-selling authors to elite athletes and coaches, sharing their insights about how to make the most of your personal and professional life. If you're looking for an entertaining format to help optimize your own health, wellness and performance through such evidence-based practices, this is the place for you! The Coaching Lab podcast is hosted by Dr. Brad Cooper, who brings a uniquely expansive background to the table. He has a PhD in performance psychology along with Masters degrees in both physical therapy (MSPT) and business (MBA) and a Bachelors degree in biology. He is CEO/Co-founder of Catalyst Coaching, an internationally recognized speaker, and elite masters endurance athlete (11 time Ironman, including 4 times at the Hawaii Ironman World Championship, winner of the 2-person 3,000 cycling Race Across America and 2:47 marathoner). Most importantly, he's husband to Suzanna (celebrating 30 years of marriage) and Dad to three amazing kids, now ages 30, 28 and 25. You can tap into Dr. Cooper's "NOT DONE YET!" (Fitness & Life After 50) publication free of charge at https://betterpath.substack.com/

Episodes

Mentioned books

Dec 8, 2025 • 1h 5min

Deep Dive into the Business of Coaching

This special episode, hosted by Leigh Baker, with nationally board certified health & wellness coach (and business owner) Suzy Destarac and Dr. Brad Cooper, takes a deep dive into the business side of coaching.Info re earning your health & wellness coaching certification, annual Rocky Mountain Coaching Retreat & Symposium & more via https://www.catalystcoachinginstitute.com/ Best-in-class coaching for Employers, EAPs & wellness providers https://catalystcoaching360.com/ Tap into the home of the (freely available) Not Done Yet! articles on unlocking life's 2nd half here. YouTube Coaching Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/CoachingChannel Contact us: Results@CatalystCoaching360.comTwitter: @Catalyst2ThriveWebsite: CatalystCoaching360.comIf you are a current or future health & wellness coach, please check out our Health & Wellness Coaching Community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/278207545599218. This is a wonderful group if you are looking for encouragement, ideas, resources and more.

Nov 24, 2025 • 1h 8min

Protein, Muscle, Aging and Performance: What the evidence tells us (Professor Stuart Phillips)

Are we destined to lose our muscle mass over time? Is protein intake important? If so, what are the best forms of it? Does that amount change as we age? Is it influenced by physical activity? These – any related questions continue to dominate the world of health, wellness & peak performance, and there’s no better source for providing the answers than Professor Stuart Phillips from the school of medicine at McMaster University in Canada. He has published over 600 papers and is among the most referenced experts on the subject, with 70,000 citations. Professor Phillips joined us in 2020, and I thought it was time we brought him back. I was grateful when he said yes!Info re earning your health & wellness coaching certification, annual Rocky Mountain Coaching Retreat & Symposium & more via https://www.catalystcoachinginstitute.com/ Best-in-class coaching for Employers, EAPs & wellness providers https://catalystcoaching360.com/ Tap into the home of the (freely available) Not Done Yet! articles on unlocking life's 2nd half here. YouTube Coaching Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/CoachingChannel Contact us: Results@CatalystCoaching360.comTwitter: @Catalyst2ThriveWebsite: CatalystCoaching360.comIf you are a current or future health & wellness coach, please check out our Health & Wellness Coaching Community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/278207545599218. This is a wonderful group if you are looking for encouragement, ideas, resources and more.

Nov 10, 2025 • 1h 36min

Influence of Resisted Breathing on Blood Pressure, VO2 Max and More! (Daniel Craighead, PhD)

What if the research indicated there was an inexpensive breathing exercise device that, if utilized about 5 minutes/day, could significantly reduce blood pressure and improve exercise performance? Resisted breathing – or what the science refers to as “inspiratory muscle strength training” – or IMST - isn’t new. I remember reading about it, but at the time it appeared to be all fluff as our intercostal breathing muscles were almost never utilized at capacity, so who cares if we strengthen them? Fast forward a decade or so and it turns out we might all care. Whether you or a loved one has high blood pressure and would like to access options beyond just medications, or you’re a runner, triathlete, swimmer or cyclist looking to optimize your performance – IMST may be worth a closer look. Today we’ll take that closer look with Dr. Daniel Craighead, who’s groundbreaking work in this area is both fascinating and eye-opening. Dr. Craighead is a leading exercise physiologist and cardiovascular health researcher at the University of Minnesota, where he focuses on innovative, time-efficient interventions to combat age-related declines in cardiovascular and metabolic health. His research on high-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training has shown that just five minutes a day of targeted breathing exercise can significantly lower blood pressure, enhance vascular function, and improve exercise tolerance — all without traditional aerobic training. Today, he joins The Coaching Lab to unpack how this simple, science-backed technique is reshaping approaches to both peak performance and everyday health.The Powerbreathe unit Dr. Cooper has been using available here.You can stay up to date on Dr. Craighead's latest research via his lab website and if you'd like to tune into another interview he provided for NPR, it is available here.Info re earning your health & wellness coaching certification, annual Rocky Mountain Coaching Retreat & Symposium & more via https://www.catalystcoachinginstitute.com/ Best-in-class coaching for Employers, EAPs & wellness providers https://catalystcoaching360.com/ Tap into the home of the (freely available) Not Done Yet! articles on unlocking life's 2nd half here. YouTube Coaching Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/CoachingChannel Contact us: Results@CatalystCoaching360.comTwitter: @Catalyst2ThriveWebsite: CatalystCoaching360.comIf you are a current or future health & wellness coach, please check out our Health & Wellness Coaching Community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/278207545599218. This is a wonderful group if you are looking for encouragement, ideas, resources and more.

Aug 18, 2025 • 25min

Behind the Curtain: Brad shares Bloodwork, Biometrics & Daily Routines as 60th Birthday Approaches

There are a lot of voices out there in the world of health, wellness & performance. Some – probably most of what we see on Instagram and Youtube – involve more show than go, more staged than engaged. Too often, it involves charismatic individuals who talk a very good talk but provide little insight into their actual walk. Or worse yet, we discover the healthy lifestyle claims made to sell supplements, exercise equipment or coaching resources turn out to be the result of performance enhancing drugs that never quite get mentioned in their script.Does those things matter? I hope so. We ALL have plenty of room for growth – and some things are, frankly, none of our business. But what if you could pull back the curtain, learn about the daily details of life beyond the sound bites? Would it make a difference? Provide some additional encouragement? In this special episode, Dr. Cooper shares his recent bloodwork results, biometrics and the daily routines he's implemented as he approaches turning 60. If you'd like to learn more about the annual physical assessment Brad mentions (pushups/pullups/plank/5K combo), you can access that here.Info re earning your health & wellness coaching certification, annual Rocky Mountain Coaching Retreat & Symposium & more via https://www.catalystcoachinginstitute.com/ Best-in-class coaching for Employers, EAPs & wellness providers https://catalystcoaching360.com/ Tap into the home of the (freely available) Not Done Yet! articles on unlocking life's 2nd half here. YouTube Coaching Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/CoachingChannel Contact us: Results@CatalystCoaching360.comTwitter: @Catalyst2ThriveWebsite: CatalystCoaching360.comIf you are a current or future health & wellness coach, please check out our Health & Wellness Coaching Community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/278207545599218. This is a wonderful group if you are looking for encouragement, ideas, resources and more.

Aug 4, 2025 • 1h 9min

Unscripted, Real, Live Coaching Session!

This special episode provides you the opportunity to be a fly on the wall during a real live coaching session with a NBHWC nationally board certified health & wellness coach.Info re earning your health & wellness coaching certification, annual Rocky Mountain Coaching Retreat & Symposium & more via https://www.catalystcoachinginstitute.com/ Best-in-class coaching for Employers, EAPs & wellness providers https://catalystcoaching360.com/ Tap into the home of the (freely available) Not Done Yet! articles on unlocking life's 2nd half here. YouTube Coaching Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/CoachingChannel Contact us: Results@CatalystCoaching360.comTwitter: @Catalyst2ThriveWebsite: CatalystCoaching360.comIf you are a current or future health & wellness coach, please check out our Health & Wellness Coaching Community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/278207545599218. This is a wonderful group if you are looking for encouragement, ideas, resources and more.

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The Coaching Lab: Health, Wellness & Performance (Brad Cooper, PhD)

Episodes

Mentioned books

Deep Dive into the Business of Coaching

Protein, Muscle, Aging and Performance: What the evidence tells us (Professor Stuart Phillips)

Ultimate Running Discussion with Brady Holmer!

Finding Your People: Building Community in a Coaching Career

NBHWC Executive Director Deanna Fournier (Past, Present & Future of Coaching)

What is (Real) Coaching - Sabryna & Leigh Pull Back the Curtain

Drs. James & Janice Prochaska - Stages of Change Model Creators

Influence of Resisted Breathing on Blood Pressure, VO2 Max and More! (Daniel Craighead, PhD)

Behind the Curtain: Brad shares Bloodwork, Biometrics & Daily Routines as 60th Birthday Approaches

Unscripted, Real, Live Coaching Session!

The AI-powered Podcast Player