Architect of Resilience

Today's guests share an incredible story of tragedy, trauma, survival, perseverance, and ultimate victory. We are honored to have Ben Toderico and his wife Denise Gorondy-Toderico on the show today! Three years ago Denise - a veterinarian from Virginia - was on her usual run on the same route she had run 3-4 times a week for over a decade. After about a mile, she was hit from behind by an SUV traveling around 60mph, and knocked about 50 yards into a ditch.  The driver left and left her for dead in a ditch for over an hour until someone saw her and called for help.  Refusing to live in fear and accept her injuries, Denise, with help from her husband Ben has worked relentlessly to recover from this incident and regain her quality of life and passion for training and health. Tune in as our Ben and Denise share their story and talk post-trauma and post-rehab training.  Ben, Denise...thank you for sharing your story with us and our listeners. Your relentless drive to not only survive - but thrive in the face of extreme adversity and pain - has inspired many and will continue to do so for years to come. Thank you.

Today's guest is PNW-native and an industry leader/pioneer in the Strength & Conditioning field. Joel Jamieson is the man who introduced HRV [Heart Rate Variability] training to the masses and continues to break new ground with his recovery platform Morpheus and online education platform 8WeeksOut.  Joel is known for his work as a coach in the combat sports arena, having trained world champions since 2004 and worked with athletes in nearly all professional and collegiate sports, not to mention Navy Seals and other elite groups. Today, Joel works with thousands of coaches, trainers, and athletes around the world through 8WeeksOut, an authoritative platform and certification for recovery-driven conditioning and performance.  In this episode, Joel breaks down the early history of HRV, how it works, and application to strength and conditioning. He and the hosts talk recovery, data, inflammation, and practical application. They also discuss some upcoming collaborative content between 8WeeksOut and Kabuki Education, as well as other little tidbits and funnies. This is a good one folks!  Joel is also a helicopter pilot, and showed up at The Lab to record this podcast by landing his chopper in our parking lot.

We are honored to have a legend in the fitness world joining us today! Jeff is an educator, coach, and the man behind the world-renowned and wildly-popular Athlean-X fitness program. Athlean-X has over 7 million subscribers on YouTube and millions more on other social media platforms!  He has previously worked as the Head Physical Therapist and Assistant Strength Coach for the New York Mets, a role in which he coached some of the game's most accomplished athletes and future hall-of-famers.  He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and has a Masters Degree in Physical Therapy and Bachelor of Science in Physioneurobiology / Premedicine from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT (one of the top 5 universities in the country in physical therapy and sports medicine). Jeff is a highly sought after speaker and lecturer, presenting on topics of injury prevention in baseball and sport-specific conditioning and his writings have been featured in numerous print and web publications. Our hosts discuss a plethora of subjects with Jeff; diving into training methodologies, sport-specific training and recovery, common mistakes, and more. To learn more about Jeff, visit athleanx.com, subscribe to the Athlean-X YouTube channel, and Instagram.

Today's guest on Strength Chat is natural bodybuilder and coach Julian Smith! Julian is also known as "the Quad Guy" and has one of the most aesthetic physiques in the sport! His unique, extremely-effective, and detailed training style is wildly popular and he has amassed a very engaged following of over 1 million people on social media: @smith.julian Julian is a PNW-native and trains out of his private facility Arms Race Gym in Hillsboro, Oregon. He owns the hugely-successful training site The Daily Pump, as well as Clifford Lenox, a fitness lifestyle and clothing brand. Our hosts spend time chatting with Julian about his unique training philosophy, the fitness industry, building a brand, the effects of social media, and other topics. As always, we hope you enjoy the show and share it with others!

Today's guest on Strength Chat is the Bryce Lewis, an elite-level drug-free powerlifter and world-renowned strength coach. Bryce is the founder of The Strength Athlete, more commonly known as TSA, whose team of coaches works with and educates beginner-to-elite level powerlifters all across the world.  Bryce holds records in the USAPL and IPF, and works to promote the sport of powerlifting globally as an ambassador using his platform. His educational background is in philosophy, and he is a passionate advocate for the application and love of the sciences, evidence-based philosophies, and skepticism of pseudoscience. Tune in and hear Bryce talk with our hosts about the latest in sports psychology, applications to strength sports, and other related topics! 

Introducing today's guest in one or two paragraphs would hardly break the surface of her incredible career and accomplishments. She was the first female Head Trainer in US professional sports history - working with the LA Dodgers for 6 years. She has also served as Head of Athletic Training/Performance for the US Men's National Soccer Team, and has presented at state, national and international level conferences in areas focusing on pillar strength, integration of physical therapy and performance training, and comprehensive kinetic chain assessment and rehabilitation. Sue sits on the advisory boards for over a half-dozen highly respected organizations in the S&C and Physical Therapy space, and has numerous professional certifications as well as a graduate education in human movement science from UNC Chapel Hill.  Today, Sue runs S&F (Structure and Function), a consulting and education business for healthcare clinicians, as well as a consulting company for the athlete. Today's discussion touches on a wide-variety of topics and Sue's experiences working with a diverse and highly-skilled athletic population. Thank you again Sue, for being our guest on the show.

Bud Jeffries is an incredible human being, and one of the strongest men in the world. Bud is a minister, massage therapist, professional performing strongman, motivational speaker, author and business owner. You may know him from his many videos and pictures of feats of other-worldly strength he regularly performs. Among them: 1000lb Raw Anderson Squat (start at the bottom) Backlift a 15,000lb trailer Walk a mile in a 300lb weight vest Carrying a 600lb stone Among his raw strength, bud is extremely agile and flexible - able to combine and apply strength in awkward and traditionally-weak positions (like doing the splits while bending nails or pressing a stone overhead). In this podcast we discuss his unique training philosophy and how he prepares and structures training for his goals. Bud's mantra is "An Unconventional Life: Living it Agile, Strong, Passionate, Wise, and Well" and this is visible in everything he does and in his mission to help people through Noah's Army. Bud's son Noah Jeffries passed away at the age of 21 in an accident a year back, and today Noah's Army provides scholarships for law enforcement, bring instruments, music and learning to children in longterm care as well as to help build awareness and the national registry for organ donation. 4 people are alive today because of Noah's decision to be an organ donor.  There is no greater pain than the loss of a child. Noah was a one-of-a-kind man, with dreams and ambitions burning so fervently inside of him not even his passing could end them. Today his legacy lives on through Noah's Army, an incredible organization we encourage all of you to support financially, with thoughts and prayers, and any way you can. We are honored to have talked with Bud and have him share his story with us and our listeners.

Today's guest is Chris Peil, a veteran of the fitness industry who has been a trainer, coach, and educator for over 15 years. Chris started The Move Well Project - helping athletes improve their movement, then programme appropriately within their limitations and manage risk levels and rehabilitate injuries. Chris has worked with some of the strongest men in the world - including Zydrunas Savickas and Eddie Hall, both winners of the World's Strongest Man contest. On today's show our hosts discuss long term development, managing load, and other ways to minimize injury risk in high-performance athletes.  Enjoy the show!

We are honored to have Victoria Felkar as today's guest on Strength Chat. She is an explorer, a renegade, and an advocate pushing the boundaries of performance and health through research, coaching, and teaching.  Victoria is currently completing her doctoral studies at University of British Columbia, specializing in physical culture, medical and criminological knowledge, performance enhancement, and the muscular body. Her doctoral research explores women's health and female hormone manipulation within sport and medicine. Tune in as the Mad Scientist, Dr. Rudolph, and the Wizard of Training discuss some of what Victoria has been working on lately.  A great episode you won't want to miss! 

Today's Strength Chat guest is John Fawkes, an up-and-coming evidence based trainer and coach out of San Francisco. John works with athletes and lifters in all populations to help them develop the systems, psychology and game plan they need to get their minds and bodies into peak condition.  In this podcast our hosts discuss the importance of properly reading and interpreting research and its application to practical and real-world uses. Research is one of the foundations for pushing our industry (and athletes) forward; and it is the job of the evidence-based coach to effectively apply research to produce real-world results.  A great discussion was had, and we hope you enjoy it!