The Progress Theory

Rob Palmer, a seasoned powerlifter and strength & conditioning coach with numerous titles, shares his expert insights on bench press performance and strength training. He discusses the importance of a supportive strength culture and lessons learned from his rugby coaching days. Rob highlights common mistakes in training, the multifactorial approach to programming, and the significance of assessing an athlete's limits. Additionally, he reflects on his own powerlifting journey and introduces 969 strength, a concept fostering enhanced strength training.

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory, where we discuss scientific principles for optimising human performance. In this episode, we're joined by sports physiologist, Dr Becky Neal. Have you ever done an obstacle course race such as Spartan or a Tough Mudder? Now think about doing one of those, but at Everest Base Camp. That's exactly what Dr Becky Neal has done. And not only that, she did it as part of a massive research study. So in this episode, we discussed her experiences in the Himalaya and also how her research is helping us understand how people function in high altitude. In this episode, we discuss:0:46 - Introduction2:07 - The world’s highest OCR12:28 - The freezing temperatures15:47 - Racing and avoiding mountain sickness26:08 - The results from the world’s highest race study30:44 - What could warn us of potential mountain sickness40:02 - future high altitude challenges for research46:41 - Would you climb Mt Everest?FOLLOW OUR PODCASTFollow our Host / Guest@theprogresstheory@drphilprice@therunnerbeanukThe World’s Highest OCRFor all our other episodes and to get in touch, please visit www.theprogresstheory.com.Thanks for listening! All rights reserved. © The Progress Theory & KULT Media LTD 2025 Mentioned in this episode:Progress Theory NewsletterThe Progress Theory newsletter. If you want the latest information and recommendations on how to optimise your physical and mental performance, then subscribe to the free Progress Theory newsletter on Substack today. Click the link in the show notes and subscribe to get the best information on human performance sent straight to your email. https://theprogresstheory.substack.com/ Sign up today.SubstackThe Science of Hybrid TrainingIt was originally thought that you could not effectively train for both strength and endurance at the same time because they required different adaptations which were not compatible with each other. It was claimed that ‘an interference effect’, blunted the adaptations for strength if you simultaneously trained for endurance. However, recent developments in sports which require both strength and endurance have really challenged this idea, with hybrid athletes producing impressive performances in both strength and endurance sports together. This had led scientists, coaches, and athletes to rethink what is humanly possible and suggests the interference effect is not as influential as originally thought. But what is a hybrid athlete? What is the ‘interference effect’? And how can we maximize our training to improve at the same time our strength and endurance performance? In this book, Dr Phil Price provides insight into the misconceptions surrounding strength and endurance training by distilling the past 50 years of research and drawing on the conversations he had with great scientists, coaches, and athletes on The Progress Theory podcast. This book is essential reading for hybrid athletes and coaches who are looking to understand the key training variables and their effect on the simultaneous development of strength and endurance performance.Book

Hello, and welcome to The Progress Theory, where we discuss scientific principles for optimising human performance. I am Dr. Phil Price, and on today's episode, we are joined by S&C coach and hybrid athlete Jamie Scott. Jamie came to me a few months ago discussing the possibility of him wanting to do a PhD in the area of hybrid training. So I thought, well, this is a perfect opportunity for you to on the show, and we can discuss all of the types of areas that we can look into. So in this episode, we discuss the misconceptions around the interference effect, what kind of factors we need to be really focused on when it comes to hybrid research, and he discusses his own experiences as a hybrid athlete and gives us three tips for our hybrid training. In this episode, we discuss:0.55 - Introduction8:23 - Becoming sub-elite in many sports13:44 - The misinterpretation of the interference effect?27:47 - Where hybrid research needs to go?33:44 -  The importance of progressing slowly42:02 - Jamie’s Training goals46:31 - What’s the hardest hybrid challenge?52:42 - Advice for hybrid trainingKey FindingsSub-Elite Performances and the Management of Time: "When we talk about hybrid approaches and being sub elite, that fascinates me because essentially you have people that are in these kind of mismatched conditions or sub-optimal conditions inherently and they're still performing exceptionally well and being able to kind of spin those plates I think is fascinating. So, yeah, I think that when you have an athlete that is maybe not as appreciated because those performances aren't kind of like world class, you're not going to have someone run like a sub ten second, 100 meters, but let's say someone's able to run like a Sub 11.5 and then it also is able to snatch 130. Then even more divergent than that is be able to run like a Sub free marathon. I think I said it in the post, you probably have one of the very select humans on Earth. And I think that's fascinating to really appreciate that actually from a genetic point of view, but also from the management of time."The Fascinating Question of Human Potential: "I find that very interesting. That's something that we just probably don't know how high that ceiling is."The Impact of Basic Physiological Needs on Performance: "When you look at potentially the reasons for fatigue from a peripheral perspective, from a central perspective, I think even the desire to drink might downregulate your force production, for example, because that's your primary need."The Importance of Physiology in Performance: "And I think Jerome Dempsey spoke about physiological redundancy. So essentially, systems within systems, ultimately, you need to stay alive, and it doesn't really care about your five K time or whatever."Training and Fatigue Management: "And I think that the idea that people in general probably just have to train a bit more, right? We just have to increase, we have to get people out training, have to get people moving. And I think that there's this idea about maybe overdoing it, pushing it or overtraining and managing fatigue."Adaptations and Fatigue Management: "We see that the stronger signal of adaptations get sent, and hence why interval training is so powerful, right? Because by enabling rest, we're enabled to spend more time at high intensity, but the cost of that is more fatigue."The Challenges of Improving Weightlifting and Endurance Sports: "The interesting thing that I probably would say from an anecdotal perspective is that when I have done weightlifting, so I particularly enjoy sort of the snatch stuff, I definitely feel like I have to be very sensible in where I place that session. Because if I have a little bit of fatigue or whatever, I just don't feel like I've got that kind of snap and kind of neural drive."Iron Man Training: "He talks about how he just tried to muscle through swimming and kind of just applied the same mentality as he did for his bike and his run and just realised that he was just getting beat up because he was pushing himself so hard, because he was trying to muscle through it and not understanding, perhaps the time spent."The Importance of Training Volumes in Swimming: "When you look at the literature in swimming, if you look at the training volumes, it's an incredibly high amount of training volumes like elite swimmers do."The Importance of Skill Acquisition Sessions: "I definitely didn't when I was doing CrossFit years and years ago, I didn't appreciate the importance of skill acquisition sessions actually having an okay mental load, but we're going to just focus on just movement and just trying to improve efficiency of a certain task and not necessarily have to kill myself in doing that task."FOLLOW OUR PODCASTFollow our Host / Guest@theprogresstheory@drphilprice@jamiescott_sncPermaperformanceFor all our other episodes and to get in touch, please visit www.theprogresstheory.com.Thanks for listening! All rights reserved. © The Progress Theory & KULT Media LTD 2025 Mentioned in this episode:Progress Theory NewsletterThe Progress Theory newsletter. If you want the latest information and recommendations on how to optimise your physical and mental performance, then subscribe to the free Progress Theory newsletter on Substack today. Click the link in the show notes and subscribe to get the best information on human performance sent straight to your email. https://theprogresstheory.substack.com/ Sign up today.SubstackThe Science of Hybrid TrainingIt was originally thought that you could not effectively train for both strength and endurance at the same time because they required different adaptations which were not compatible with each other. It was claimed that ‘an interference effect’, blunted the adaptations for strength if you simultaneously trained for endurance. However, recent developments in sports which require both strength and endurance have really challenged this idea, with hybrid athletes producing impressive performances in both strength and endurance sports together. This had led scientists, coaches, and athletes to rethink what is humanly possible and suggests the interference effect is not as influential as originally thought. But what is a hybrid athlete? What is the ‘interference effect’? And how can we maximize our training to improve at the same time our strength and endurance performance? In this book, Dr Phil Price provides insight into the misconceptions surrounding strength and endurance training by distilling the past 50 years of research and drawing on the conversations he had with great scientists, coaches, and athletes on The Progress Theory podcast. This book is essential reading for hybrid athletes and coaches who are looking to understand the key training variables and their effect on the simultaneous development of strength and endurance performance.Book

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance. I am Dr Phil Price and in today's episode, we have ex SAS, and now the founder of the Modern Warrior project, Lindsay Bruce.I’ve been desperate to know what separates those who make into the SAS compared to the rest of us. You hear on social media the importance of leadership, discipline, a fast learner, for example, all of which are important, but you can be a great disciplined leader and still fail SAS selection. Is it physical or all about having the right mindset. And also, can we learn these skills and apply them outside of the military?As always, follow and subscribe for all of our content on Instagram and Youtube. So here is, Lindsey BruceIn this episode, we discuss:1:00 - Introduction05:09 - How to apply for the SAS09:09 - What do you need to complete SAS selection?13:22 - Are you cut from a different cloth?18:14 - The background of SAS soldiers vs Officers24:05 - Developing mindset through exposure28:37 - Is there anything where you’ve got it or you haven’t?34:35 - The phases of selection40:16 - The Physical determinants of SAS selection49:27 - The Modern Warrior Project1:05:26 - Signing up for the Modern Warrior ProjectKey FindingsThe Popularity of Special Forces and TV Shows: "Especially when you're linking that from TV to social media, and obviously recent years popularity with The TV shows that is just growing arms and legs, obviously, you know, which is, you know, going back to Before before all this happened, you had the odd thing that would maybe come out that would be, you know, popular in TV. But it didn't really go to that level of And I think social media has obviously helped catapult that into the, you know, another stratosphere really, which is which is got It's got positives and negatives along with that."The Power of Grit and Determination: "But there is something about every man who gets through that if you just has an extra level of grit, Drive and determination than the next than the next guy."The Drive to Success: "They've got a huge reason to, you know, that when you see a championship level boxer who comes from nothing and to to get to the top, he is the hungry wolf climbing the hill to get to the top."The Importance of Health and Fitness in the Military: "There is so much you can do physically, then the rest of it is down to their mindset and how resilient they are, and what goes on upstairs."The Evolution of Health and Fitness: "So if you look at the that that era and and how that era ended up moving on to later stages of life, a lot of them were like packs of broken biscuits physically later on in life because they don't look after themselves."Finding Purpose in Life: "I went through this period where I just wasn't quite sure what I should be doing. So there was a lot of uncertainty as far as, you know, the question you ask yourself, am I really doing the right thing? You know, I kinda like what I'm doing. Some of the some of the things that I'm doing, I I enjoy, but really is it really serving me in my life to the point where I think that I'm in the right place, doing the right thing. And and the reality was that I wasn't."Helping Men Similar to My Age: "So at the same time, I could see certain problems in the world, from a general perspective of men over a certain age. They were having these common challenges in life. And I thought there was a huge there was a huge calling for helping men similar to my age who I could really relate to and help."Belonging to Something: "And everyone's different. There's a very diverse bunch of people come into the program, but they all have similar common challenges that can be dealt with. And not only that, it's about being part of something because people wanna belong to something, don't they? Human beings are social creatures, they want to belong to something."The Importance of Optimizing Our Routines: "So strangely enough, everything that the guys need in the program that they come to me for, I need it I need also. Now I I'm I'm maybe a step ahead when they come on the program because I've been doing this stuff a long time, and, You know, I physically keep myself in shape, and all my habits, like, you'll be the same, you know, we come from the same sort of, yeah, thought processes, not the rest of it. You know, we look after ourselves, we eat the right foods, we we get off sleep, and we're very into our optimizing our our, Our our sort of our circadian rhythm and a lot, hence, you know, being part of the human 2014. You know, so it's we've got we've got that already, and we understand the benefits of that. So it's essentially guiding guiding men to the same process so they can optimize themselves. But when I think about everything that that I provide them with And what the rest of the community provides them with. I always see this as a you're not like like you said a minute ago. I'm not on this pedestal going, you know, I was in the special forces.""The Power of Community: We stay for the community."FOLLOW OUR PODCASTFollow our Host / Guest@theprogresstheory@drphilprice@thelindsaybruceThe Modern Warrior ProjectFor all our other episodes and to get in touch, please visit www.theprogresstheory.com.Thanks for listening! All rights reserved. © The Progress Theory & KULT Media LTD 2025 Mentioned in this episode:The Science of Hybrid TrainingIt was originally thought that you could not effectively train for both strength and endurance at the same time because they required different adaptations which were not compatible with each other. It was claimed that ‘an interference effect’, blunted the adaptations for strength if you simultaneously trained for endurance. However, recent developments in sports which require both strength and endurance have really challenged this idea, with hybrid athletes producing impressive performances in both strength and endurance sports together. This had led scientists, coaches, and athletes to rethink what is humanly possible and suggests the interference effect is not as influential as originally thought. But what is a hybrid athlete? What is the ‘interference effect’? And how can we maximize our training to improve at the same time our strength and endurance performance? In this book, Dr Phil Price provides insight into the misconceptions surrounding strength and endurance training by distilling the past 50 years of research and drawing on the conversations he had with great scientists, coaches, and athletes on The Progress Theory podcast. This book is essential reading for hybrid athletes and coaches who are looking to understand the key training variables and their effect on the simultaneous development of strength and endurance performance.BookProgress Theory NewsletterThe Progress Theory newsletter. If you want the latest information and recommendations on how to optimise your physical and mental performance, then subscribe to the free Progress Theory newsletter on Substack today. Click the link in the show notes and subscribe to get the best information on human performance sent straight to your email. https://theprogresstheory.substack.com/ Sign up today.Substack

Greg Williams, Hyrox athlete and host of Roxlyfe podcast, shares insights on training for Hyrox, transitioning from sprinting, and what sets elite athletes apart. Topics include mindset, training structure, and future of Hyrox. Key thoughts: mindset, taking risks, overcoming fear in sports.

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory, where we discuss scientific principles for optimising human performance. In this episode, we're joined by Celtman and Norseman champion Eilidh Prise. Now, extreme triathlons like the Celtman and The Norseman are getting more and more popular, so it's a real privilege to have on The Progress Theory someone that has won both. In this episode, Eilidh discusses how she's incorporated her training into a lifestyle that she absolutely loves and also discusses how she deals with that cold. In this episode, we discuss:0:44 - Introduction 1:57 - Getting into Extreme triathlons08:10 - Changing sporting career12:24 - Training for the Celtman15:15 - Make training fun and part of your lifestyle18:50 - Fitting training around work21:25 - What is the celtman?26:03 - Creativity breeds resilience31:38 - Going for the Celtman for a 3rd time33:30 - Qualifying for the Celtman35:50 - What is the Norseman?39:40 - Training for the Norsman41:30 - Dealing with the cold44:20 - How to qualify for the Norseman46:51 - Make your sport your lifestyleFOLLOW OUR PODCASTFollow our Host / Guest@theprogresstheory@drphilprice@venture_with_ep@Xtri@celtman@norsemanFor all our other episodes and to get in touch, please visit www.theprogresstheory.com.Thanks for listening! All rights reserved. © The Progress Theory & KULT Media LTD 2025 Mentioned in this episode:Progress Theory NewsletterThe Progress Theory newsletter. If you want the latest information and recommendations on how to optimise your physical and mental performance, then subscribe to the free Progress Theory newsletter on Substack today. Click the link in the show notes and subscribe to get the best information on human performance sent straight to your email. https://theprogresstheory.substack.com/ Sign up today.SubstackThe Science of Hybrid TrainingIt was originally thought that you could not effectively train for both strength and endurance at the same time because they required different adaptations which were not compatible with each other. It was claimed that ‘an interference effect’, blunted the adaptations for strength if you simultaneously trained for endurance. However, recent developments in sports which require both strength and endurance have really challenged this idea, with hybrid athletes producing impressive performances in both strength and endurance sports together. This had led scientists, coaches, and athletes to rethink what is humanly possible and suggests the interference effect is not as influential as originally thought. But what is a hybrid athlete? What is the ‘interference effect’? And how can we maximize our training to improve at the same time our strength and endurance performance? In this book, Dr Phil Price provides insight into the misconceptions surrounding strength and endurance training by distilling the past 50 years of research and drawing on the conversations he had with great scientists, coaches, and athletes on The Progress Theory podcast. This book is essential reading for hybrid athletes and coaches who are looking to understand the key training variables and their effect on the simultaneous development of strength and endurance performance.Book

Sports physiologist Evan Peikon discusses the importance of NNOXX in measuring muscle oxygenation and nitric oxide for hybrid athlete performance. Topics include physiological determinants, elite Crossfit performance, interval training guidance, and the slow progression of hybrid training.

Explore the importance of respiratory training for athletes with S&C coach Sean Seale. Learn about zone 2 training, aerobic conditioning in CrossFit, and optimizing respiratory training for performance. Discover the benefits of balancing marketing volume, research utilization in training, and designing training phases for CrossFit athletes.

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory! I'm thrilled to announce that we're back with season six, and we have some incredible new episodes lined up for you. Our first episode will be released on February 12, 2024, and I can't wait for you to hear it. It's been an eventful year for me, becoming a father and experiencing lots of changes at my work at St. Mary's University. But now we're back and ready to bring you the best podcast episodes yet, featuring amazing guests, coaches, scientists, and athletes.In season five, we focused on the theme of hybrid training, delving into some fascinating discussions and insights from our guests. This led to some fantastic opportunities, including speaking engagements and collaborations with Omnia Performance. I've also written a book, which is soon to be released, so keep an eye on our social media for updates.One of the most rewarding moments from season five was meeting a listener at Hyrox, who expressed how much the podcast had helped with their training. Knowing that our discussions are making a positive impact is truly fulfilling.Now, as we move into season six, we're exploring the concept of elite performance. What sets the top 1% of athletes and professionals apart from the rest? How do they push the boundaries of human performance? These are the questions we'll be exploring this season as we speak to elite individuals from various fields.We already have ten amazing episodes recorded, covering topics such as elite CrossFit conditioning, extreme triathlons, ultramarathons, and hybrid training challenges. I'm incredibly excited to share these insightful conversations with you.I also want to express my gratitude to our sponsors, HMN24, for their fantastic range of supplements that have personally helped me improve my sleep-wake cycle. And a big thank you to our production partner, Kult Media, for their support in making this season possible.I can't wait for you to join us on this exciting journey of exploration and discovery. Make sure to subscribe to The Progress Theory wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube. See you in the first episode!For all our other episodes and to get in touch, please visit www.theprogresstheory.com.Thanks for listening! All rights reserved. © The Progress Theory & KULT Media LTD 2025

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance. In this episode, we have S&C coach Sean Seale.Sean is the host of Upside Strength, an amazing resource which includes a podcast, educational seminars and an awesome youtube channel. Through his podcast, he has investigated different physiological concepts and their application to endurance training and CrossFit, and it has been awesome to hear his journey of learning new ideas, putting them into practice and formulating his own approach to training, testing and monitoring. In this episode, we discuss his physiological approach to testing CrossFit athletes and determining training intensity zones and the importance of low-intensity training for aerobic adaptations.But before we get to the show I want to thank our sponsors, who the show would not be possible without. I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to my production partner, KULT Media. KULT Media has been instrumental in the development & success of the progress theory. They have created brand guides, comprehensive podcast strategies, enhanced the podcast production, developed custom workflows for me and edited & mixed all of the video, audio and social media content. Their simple Coach, Create & Collaborate process has saved me 100’s hours in podcast production, resolved countless technical issues and consistently help me to improve my podcasting game. So if you want to establish and engage your audience, or are ready to launch your own podcast head to www.kult.media to learn more. Thank you to HMN24 – fuelling human potential and optimising everyday human performance and well-being. First of all – HMN24 is not a sports supplement company. I’ve seen sport supplements be used as a method to improve performance in the gym and at a certain sport. However, these supplements, like a pre-workout, are often used on top of a lifestyle which does not provide the foundation needed for optimal performance. There’s no point taking pre-workout supplements if your sleep, hydration, and nutrition is an unstructured mess. I’m convinced that a large percentage of injuries are often caused, not because training was poor, but because a poor lifestyle foundation increased the athlete’s susceptibility to injury. Sports supplements are often used to plaster the cracks in poor lifestyle habits, which only causes more future problems. And this is where HMN24 is different. The product range at HMN24 not only helps improve your foundation; it optimises it. The HMN24 products are designed to fit around your circadian rhythms, from the moment you wake up, to key moments in the day when you need optimal focus, to getting the best sleep at night, there’s a product to optimise each phase of the day.I can’t recommend enough the “live on form’ pack, consisting of the products Rise, flow and pre-sleep. Rise is for the morning and is my absolute favourite. It tastes amazing. Rise contains caffeine for increased morning alertness (though not a huge amount of caffeine, which is sooo much better for avoiding gastro-intestinal distress), electrolytes from coconut and watermelon powder to increase hydration after the previous night’s sleep, and B-vitamins, to ensure you ready to win the morning. I’m not a fan of long-winded morning routines. I wake up, have my Rise with ice, and get straight to writing, and I’ve seen such an improvement in getting into deep work.By the time 2pm comes around the effects of caffeine from Rise has worn off, but I don’t want to take more caffeine because that’s going to interrupt getting to sleep later on. This is where Flow is perfect. It’s a caffeine-free nootropic, perfect for improving alertness and concentration during that mid-afternoon slump. And finally, I take pre-sleep just before bed, which is a comprehensive night-time complex, formulated to help support well-being and fortify the body against the fatigue and stress that come with leading a performance-driven lifestyle. I can’t recommend these products enough they are a game changer for human performance. And also, while you’re at their website hmn24.com check out there plant protein, which is incredible for smoothies post-training, and their website includes articles and an awesome podcast for those wanting to learn more about human performance. You can even check out the episode I did with them, I thoroughly enjoyed that chat I had with Phi Learney, Co-founder of HMN24, and it has led to an awesome collaboration with HMN24 supporting The Progress Theory. If you want a 10% discount on all HMN24 products either head to their website via the links in the Instagram bios of @theProgresstheory or my personal Instagram @drphilprice or use the code PHILPRICE at checkout.In this episode, we discuss:1:09 - Introduction02:45 - Upside Strength & introduction to Sean Seale12:08 - The change to a physiological focus15:04 - Physiological testing protocols22:36 - Physiological changes from training25:07 - Determining intensity zones using critical power and lactate threshold31:03 - Testing with minimal equipment37:28 - Maintaining power output during tests40:10 - How best to find critical power46:14 - The importance of low-intensity training for Crossfit50:45 - Any differences between hybrid athletes and Crossfit athletes?55:26 - Lactate and fat oxidation in Crossfitters58:29 - RecommendationsFOLLOW OUR PODCASTFollow our Host / Guest@theprogresstheory@thepricep@upside_strengthExplore these Resources or Items Mentioned in the ShowIn this episode, we mentioned the following resources:Upside StrengthUpside strength academyUpside Strength YoutubeCrossfitMoxy MonitorVO2 masterExphyslab.comConcept2WattbikeEvan PeikonTraining think tankEndureFor all our other episodes and to get in touch, please visit www.theprogresstheory.com.Thanks for listening! All rights reserved. © The Progress Theory & KULT Media LTD 2025