Beast over Burden powered by Barbell Logic

Pick your battles for tranquility, happiness, peace, & prosperity. Assume the best in others, and work toward goal accomplishment.

Pick Your Battles: Cool, Calm, Collected

Someone in the All In conference Matt, Niki, Andrew, & Josh recently attended said "that's below my line."

What does this mean? It means certain things should be below "your line" that stirs up your anger.

Of course, anger is an emotion, and emotions arise sometimes whether you want them to or not. That being said, you should avoid outrage culture, and if you find yourself dominated by your passions, you should step back and deal with it.

Matt has identified that addressing a situation in anger almost never works out well. This does not just mean yelling or punishment, but even talking in anger - it usually does not come off well.

If accomplishing the goal is the goal, and anger does not help, then don't lean into the anger. Acknowledge, overcome, and try to make peace.

Pick Your Battles: Assume the Best

One component of picking your battles is assuming the best in others, especially others who have built up a level of trust with you.

You cannot be in a healthy relationship with your spouse or really any other important person in your life if you assume the worst possible motives for their actions.

Reach out to the other person and listen. Winning an argument or seeking to dominate conversation is not a good way to reach understanding or peace.

Pick your battles, seek peace, and overcome anger and other passions.

PS - This podcast is brought to you by TurnKey Coach. Enhance your coaching effectiveness and efficiency with TurnKey Coach. You can learn more by going HERE.

Check out Coaching 101 - the new Academy course designed to cover the basics of coaching. It's leaner and tighter than our other offerings (and cheaper).

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

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Why participate in barbell competition, and if you decide to compete how do you approach it. Learn about this and the exciting new International Barbell Federation (IBF).

Barbell Competition Benefits

Andrew interviews Jordan Stanton, owner of Next Level Barbell and the Strength Union, both in or around Portland, OR, as well as former owner of the United States Strengthlifting Federation (USSF). As a gym owner, in-person coach, online coach, lifting federation owner, and competitive lifter, he has experienced barbell competition in all its aspects.

Why compete?

Competition focuses lifters' training, organizing it around a purpose connected to time. It also provides some motivation, not only mentally because the meet is on the calendar, but also to train hard and take recovery seriously.

Consider participating in an online or in-person meet, regardless of your training level.

Barbell Competition Tips & General Approach

Generally, you want to taper before a meet and practice heavy singles. You definitely need to be familiar with the rules of the meet. Having a coach can really help here.

For many, though, the most important thing is not stressing about the meet or how you do but simply experiencing the meet. Lift heavy as people cheer you on. See how all the different rules and aspects of a meet change your lifting and your training leading up to your programming.

Barbell Competition Online

The USSF went online during Covid. Now, the USSF has been reflagged and is the International Barbell Federation (IBF).

If you're seeing this before or in October 2024, sign up for the online meet from October 9-20, 2024.

You can do a powerlifting version (squat, bench press, deadlift) or strengthlifting version (squat, overhead press, deadlift).

Make sure you read the rules and ensure you execute accordingly the day you lift.

An online meet is a great lower stress way to compete in your normal environment, not having to take a day out to go somewhere and spend most of the day competing.

Consider participating in barbell competition as part of your overall training approach, even if just one time.

PS - If you're interested in taking online coaching with Barbell Logic for a test run, check it out here.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

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Learn how many go from client to coach, crushing the client life cycle. This is Micaela Bickel's story.

Client to Coach: Fitness to Strength

Barbell Logic has identified a somewhat typical progression among a cohort of its clientele. These folks go from fan to strength client to Academy client to coach using TurnKey Coach.

Micaela Bickel followed this path.

She began more in the fitness space, programming circuits and endurance. Barbells were sprinkled in.

Despite her skepticism and fears, training with barbells produced the results she wanted and not only did not hurt her back but actually helped her back.

She attended a seminar and left humbled but ready to pivot to strength-based training for both herself and her clients.

Client to Coach: The Business of Coaching

She soon found the Academy and learned many of the practical and academic things it teaches. Despite having an exercise science degree, she derived a huge value from the academy.

She opened a gym in February 2023. That was a steeper learning curve.

She learned as she went, though the Academy also not spends more time addressing the business of coaching.

Her first important transition was from charging per session to charging monthly. Soon thereafter, she moved to a hybrid model of coaching, where clients receive usually 2-3 months of in-person coaching from her and then are moved to online through TurnKey Coach.

This has increased her ability to coach more clients and decreased her time at work.

The way TKC measures progress and PRs has encouraged compliance, and clients are able to train while away from the gym (and Micaela can coach away from the gym).

Learn about Micaela's story from client to coach and how she crushed the client life cycle.

PS - This podcast is brought to you by TurnKey Coach. Enhance your coaching effectiveness and efficiency with TurnKey Coach. You can learn more by going HERE.

Check out Coaching 101 - the new Academy course designed to cover the basics of coaching. It's leaner and tighter than our other offerings (and cheaper).

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email [email protected]

When you know you have a good product, service, or solution, you have unshakeable confidence. How do you develop this? Learn what this is and how you develop it!

Unshakeable Confidence: Is It Possible & What Is It?

Andrew saw a video of someone handing out bags of money and reacting to people accepting or not accepting it.

Seems pretty crazy, to turn a bag of money, right!?

Now, in a big city, we can acknowledge that people might not fully understand what is going on, might be skeptical, and other reasons may exist. But in a situation this obvious - do you want free money? - the person handing it out is not insulted if you turn it down.

Why? Well, because this person is delivering such obvious value.

Andrew realized that when you know you have a good product, good service, good solution, this is how you react to rejection. You don't get incredibly defensive or emotional. You might take it as a learning opportunity.

While you want to spread the word about the good thing you have, your emotions are not so wrapped up in defending the value because you know, deep down, this thing has value.

Unshakeable Confidence: How to Develop It

Be honest with yourself and invest in ability, integrity, and benevolence. If the product needs work, be honest with yourself. That might be part of your pitch and you should charge accordingly.

For example, if you are trying to become a coach, you might initially charge nothing or very little and pitch it as something that will likely provide them value while allowing you to improve your coaching. If they receive value, request a testimonial.

Pick something that keeps you curious, and grow and expand your limits within that thing. Improve your craft. Improvement requires honesty, because you have to acknowledge your deficiencies and work to improve those areas.

When it comes to sales, this will look like not being obsessed with closing the sale, but rather offering a service where you help the other make a decision. Occasionally, it will not be a good fit. That's okay. Do not force something bad when it does not make sense.

Develop unshakeable confidence and then deliver.

PS - If you're interested in taking online coaching with Barbell Logic for a test run, check it out here.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email [email protected]

Learn how to avoid, identify, and get out of occupational burnout. Like overtraining, this is better to avoid then dig yourself out of.

Burnout: Definition & Identification

This is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion. It comes from doing too much for too long, especially too many urgent things. Some people have performed some great feats of endurance in their lives, but they often focus on the important, not the urgent.

You will experience a lack of desire to work, even with things that used to motivated and excited you. It will affect all areas of your life.

There is a clear parallel with overtraining. Overtraining is actually less common than most people think, but if you become overtrained it is debilitating. Overtraining and becoming burned out are better to avoid than dig yourself out of.

Burnout: Avoidance versus Digging Yourself Out

This is one of those instances when important things become urgent. You drown in an overwhelming amount of urgency for too long, and you will have to confront it. It is better to get out in front of it.

Ensure that you are making time for the important. You are taking days off and there are things you do unrelated to the urgent every day.

Take care of your health always: physical, medical, spiritual, psychological, social.

Do not medicate with activities that can exacerbate the problem, such as alcohol or other drugs, unhealthy foods, empty pleasures, risky behaviors, or excessive spending or gambling.

To dig yourself out will require more work and greater effort than if you had never found yourself burned out in the first place. And, of course, some people never dig themselves out.

Avoid burnout, but reach out for help if you find yourself burned out.

PS - This podcast is brought to you by TurnKey Coach. Enhance your coaching effectiveness and efficiency with TurnKey Coach. You can learn more by going HERE.

Check out Coaching 101 - the new Academy course designed to cover the basics of coaching. It's leaner and tighter than our other offerings (and cheaper).

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email [email protected]

Stronger means harder to kill, more able to fulfill your work and domestic obligations, and more useful overall.

Listen to Matt's talk to the Tactical Response alumni. This group of people cares about being prepared, protecting themselves and their loved ones, and more capable overall. If they are weak, however, they have a gap, and they need to be stronger. This applies to you too.

Stronger Means Harder to Kill

Would you like to be harder to kill, more resilient, healthier, and more useful overall or softer, easier to kill, more susceptible to death and sickness, and a burden on others?

If you're weak, you have a gap that needs to be addressed. You need to get stronger.

Getting stronger is brutally simple. Eschew complication, follow the simple, hard, effective way. Receive the greatest return investment for your time and effort by following basic barbell movements such as the squat, bench press, deadlift, and press.

Strength is about overcoming cancer, staying out of a nursing home, becoming a better father or mother. It is about building the confidence to regularly do hard things, and to be more prepared when involuntary hardship comes.

Act now! Exercise today and work toward training to get stronger and harder to kill.

PS - If you're interested in taking online coaching with Barbell Logic for a test run, check it out here.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email [email protected]

Learn when to break the rules and when to follow them. Generally, you follow the rules, but not always.

When to Break the Rules: Increase Speed & Decrease Costs

In many industries and organizations, there are general guidelines, rules, or ways of doing things. You may learn, early on, that generally, for example, employees should have one manager only or that you should never divide your forces in the face of a larger force.

Great victories and advantages, however, lie in consciously not following these rules.

For start up companies, your advantages over larger companies come from nimbleness and low costs. When you start your business, you are the technician, the manager, and the owner. You wear all the hats.

You will hire employees, and they will begin to take some of those hats.

Do not, however, force your people and processes under principles that slow you down or increase your costs.

As you scale, you will reach higher level nodes where payroll will increase. As you do this, profitability may decrease as you take on more people, but then it will improve as you improve and grow at that node.

Move fast and move cheap. Know when to break the rules and knowingly break them for the good of your business (when it makes sense).

PS - This podcast is brought to you by TurnKey Coach. Enhance your coaching effectiveness and efficiency with TurnKey Coach. You can learn more by going HERE.

Check out Coaching 101 - the new Academy course designed to cover the basics of coaching. It's leaner and tighter than our other offerings (and cheaper).

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email [email protected]

We cover the good, the bad, and the ugly in the recent games in this 2024 Olympics Wrap-Up. 2024 Olympics Wrap-Up: the Impressive & the Controversial

You have to admit it, Olympians' performances are impressive.

The amount of work over years and decades is immense. Genetic gifts abound, but so do mindset and work ethic abilities.

Olympians' RPE 10 is not the same as our RPE 10.

We value voluntary hardship and appreciate what the human body can do. We stand in awe of the excellence on display in the Olympics, but rather than demotivate us it inspires us. In some small way, we get to participate in the same pursuit to not accept mediocrity and burdening others, but improving ourselves.

Enjoy this 2024 Olympics Wrap-Up!

PS - If you're interested in taking online coaching with Barbell Logic for a test run, check it out here.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email [email protected]

Learn about the ultimate time efficiency hack - the pomodoro. This ultimate productivity is a game changer those those urgent & important tasks you don't really want to do. Get them done faster, so you have more time for those important tasks you want to do.

Time Efficiency Hack: The Pomodoro

You have tasks you need to do but you do not want to do. It might be something on the computer for work. It might be a manual labor task, such as fixing the lawn mower.

We can find ways to sabotage our own intentions unconsciously with distractions.

A pomodoro is a set period of time (you might start with 25 minutes) where you focus on only one task with no distractions or context switches.

When you are done with the pomodoro, you take a break. The break is important. Go to the bathroom, stretch your legs, get some sun, quickly chat with someone.

The goal is to be able to do more back-to-back pomodoros and have the pomodoros be longer.

Matt will often have a notepad next to him with a pen. If some random idea comes in his mind that he does not want to forget, such as "I need to buy cilantro at the grocery store," he just quickly writes down "cilantro" and then continues on his task.

Chris recommends for those distracted by noises to get foam ear plugs and white noise headphones.

It might seem not fun to buckle down and get the work done, but see how much faster you get the work done and how much more time you have to do other things.

Try this time efficiency hack, this ultimate productivity tool, this effectiveness game changer - the pomodoro.

This podcast is brought to you by TurnKey Coach. Enhance your coaching effectiveness and efficiency with TurnKey Coach. You can learn more by going HERE.

Check out Coaching 101 - the new Academy course designed to cover the basics of coaching. It's leaner and tighter than our other offerings (and cheaper).

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email [email protected]

Back pain for lifters can be scary & frustrating & varies in severity. Learn the causes, treatments, approaches, & red flags as a lifter and coach.

Rebekah Krieg, Exclusive Coach & former long-time physical therapist, discusses back pain, how to approach it as a lifter and coach, and red flags contraindicate training.

Back Pain for Lifters: Part of the Human Experience

Back pain happens.

Whether an MRI of your back would look "normal" or "bad," back pain seems to be part of the human experience for those who exercise and train and those who do not.

It is better, all things being equal, to train and strengthen your low back. A strong back is a resilient low back.

Back pain comes in many intensities and durations, from the short-term tweaks, to the multi-month or year variety, to chronic back pain.

As lifters and coaches, we have to approach back pain with some flexibility but basic principles, an openness to refer out, active listening to our clients.

Back Pain for Lifters: Treatments & Approaches

The general approach is to focus on what you can do.

If a lifter experiences a tweak during the workout, a general approach is to do the following:

• reduce load first
• next, reduce range of motion
• next, vary the exercise selection
• be prepared to end the workout

As a coach, do not encourage or support client catastrophizing. Training curious, see what works. Even if the workout has to be ended, most likely the client will feel better after a day or two and with something easy movements like bending over at the waist to get blood flowing into the back.

Motion is lotion.

For someone with new back that comes in, encourage them to see how the back feels after a warm up (and likely a slower, longer warm up). If they are still not feeling good, than follow the steps above. Often times, though, they will feel better after a warm up.

If someone comes in with chronic back pain, they are used to back pain. Focus on excellent technique and be more conservative with them. Ensure that the back pain does not get worse, and see if it gets better. Communication will be critical, and you may include a back pain metric that helps you and the client ensure pain monitoring is a regular part of the coaching process.

If the back pain is bad and normal enough, they might never do the conventional deadlift. Focus on what they can do. If the conventional deadlift or low bar squat causes significant pain or things to get worse, it does not make sense to force them into these movement patterns.

Back Pain for Lifters: Red Flags that Contraindicate Training

Sometimes, clients should not even warm up. If the client reports any sudden loss of function since the back pain, this contraindicates training. Below is a longer list:

• lack of bowel control
• sexual dysfunction
• bilateral pain
• loss of motor function (e.g. foot drop)

Do NOT let them warm up. They need to go to the doctor.

Bekah even has said that she has had to fire a client who would not follow her recommendations and guidelines for lifting and would not see a doctor. This may be the kindest thing you can do to them.

What type of glaring signal might it send to someone that a coach will no longer take their money unless they change their behaviors?

Back pain for lifters and coaches can be frustrating and scary. Do not catastrophize, follow some basic steps and principles, and do not be afraid to refer out to another healthcare professional.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email [email protected]