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Learn about managing morbidity - staying active, vigorous, and capable to have as much of a human life as possible for as long as you can. You need to dance with your granddaughter, care for your chickens, and farm your fields.

Managing Morbidity: Memento Mori

We all die, and as lifters this means we all complete our last PRs. There is a day, and you may have reached it or may reach it soon (you will reach it at some point) when you won't hit any more PRs.

This is okay. This is part of the deal.

At some point, the strength curves bends and then comes down.

For Karl, he still thought he might be able to hit some PRs. He moved to a more rural location, felt the heaviness of his 258 pounds, but he still thought maybe if he hit a good stretch of training he could hit another PR.

Then he had a stroke.

He had a transient ischemic attack (TIA). The word transient is key - he hasn't experience long-term, permanent effects from the stroke. The stroke occurred due a congenital issue - patent foramen ovale (PFO) - an open oval hole in the wall of the heart. Migraines are common for people with this issue.

He confronted the reality that he will never hit another PR again. Managing Morbidity: Staying Active & Vigorous

We don't strength train, though, to just stave off death or sickness or even compress morbidity into the smallest possible portion of our lives. We train FOR something (or multiple things).

We train for health. We train to dance with out granddaughter. We train to take care of our chickens. Some train for glory, others to take their medicine, others to compete.

It's really a remarkable thing, to walk into a gym multiple times a week, year-after-year-, and fight against iron and gravity.

While Karl, now walking around 50 pounds lighter, misses looking like he lifts when he walks around. But everyday activities are easier. Certain things open up to him - such as getting clothes that fit easily or may even - gasp - going for a run.

Managing Morbidity: Training as an Athlete of Aging

Okay, PRs are behind you. What do you do now?

Sully and Noah had a great podcast series discussing this in greater detail.

Right now, Karl is completing LP and seeing where that ends. He might spend some time pursuing hypertrophy. He might go for a run. He'll definitely attend to his field to grow food and tend his chickens.

You need to accumulate hard sets. That's what strength training boils down to. It's not that the reps, sets, technique, or exercise selection don't matter. It's just that, at the end of the day, you need to accumulate hard sets consistently over time.

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/

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It's time to be ALL IN! Go for that goal or project or task you've been putting off, swing for the fences, and get it done.

All In!

It's time to be all in. It's time to execute. It's time to complete that task or project or goal or dream or aspiration that you've been putting off.

No more.

Of course, you should complete a GAMEplan so you can define your goals, the actions you take to achieve them, and the metrics you use to determine if you've succeeded in meeting your goals.

But that's just the beginning, not the end. Don't use your GAMEplan as a procrastination tool. Be all in right now.

As a coach, this might mean creating lists of potential clients (cold leads and warm leads). Then, calling, texting, messaging, or emailing these people. Swing for the fences.

If you have 4 clients, don't aim for 6, aim to get 20. Schedule the time and do the work, even if you don't want to. The impact on 2024 and beyond will be incalculable, beyond the confidence you gain from having done the work.

It's time to be all in.

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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• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

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• Or email [email protected]

We share holiday training strategies so you don't lose all your gains. Learn the tips and tricks to keep training & gaining during the holidays.

Holiday Training Strategies - Expectations & Mindset

When it comes to holiday training, expectations need to match reality. For many people, they confront more variability which does not lend itself to normal consistency of training in more regular times.

Travel, changes in gyms and equipment, different food and alcohol, time off work, time with family - these variables mean that our normal recovery capacities won't be there for us.

Understand that weights that you may have missed reps or harder-than-expected reps. Plan and prepare to have flexibility built into your workouts.

When it comes to mindset, don't lose heart because of lower performance. Andrew also recommends training curious. This means that you should probably try the planned work weight, barring some extremely challenging or missed warm ups. You may also find that you can hit an unexpected PR during this time.

Look to enjoy training and keep up the habit. Plan and prepare to train, but be ready to adjust.

Holiday Training Strategies - Expectations & Mindset

Before you even get to the gym, you need to find the gym. Where are you going to train? What equipment do they have? What equipment can you pack (shoe, belt, wrist wraps, chalk, etc.)?

Andrew straps his shoes to his carry-on backpack. Niki has her case the perimeter of the suitcase (as opposed to the belt cinnamon roll).

Make training a part of your holiday plans before the holidays begin.

Holiday Training Strategies - Training Adjustments

Matt, Andrew, Niki, Scott, and CJ have discussed ways to adjust training to reality over the years, and the holidays are similar to any other times where training likely takes a backseat but needs to remain as part of the plan.

Here are some strategies that may apply to your holiday situation:

• shorter workouts
• longer, less frequent workouts
• change the exercise (e.g. RDLs not deadlifts)
• autoregulation
• train curious

The bottom line is, you need to prioritize training, but prioritizing training during the holiday probably doesn't look like a 5-day-a-week super advanced plan, but rather finding a gym, scheduling lifts on days that make sense, packing necessary equipment, training with curiosity, flexibility, & long-term progress in mind.

We hope these holiday training strategies help!

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/

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This is a replay from Strong Life with Zach Evan Esh podcast where Matt & Zach discuss coaching, online coaching, & business.

Strong Life with Zach Evan Esh Replay

Matt and Zach have interacted before, passing along business advice and Matt coaching Zach when he ran into some issues. Matt jumped on the Strong Life podcast to discuss why online coaching is better than in-person coaching.

For many gym owners, they feel tied to the gym, without the ability to leave and get paid. A hybrid model of online coaching and in-person coaching can help.

For example, instead of losing money during vacation periods or, even if you charge the same, not providing any value to your clients, gym owners can program for clients using TurnKey Coach. If desired, the coach could provide technique feedback on the application as well.

For many long-term clients, whose technique is perfect, moving to online coaching allows a more affordable option while still receiving technique coaching and programming.

TurnKey Coach is perfect for those coaches and personal trainers who are bad or not interested in business. Get your clients, coach your clients, let TurnKey Coach handle the backend that you don't want to deal with.

Enjoy this Strong Life with Zach Evan Esh replay.

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]

Managing nutrition through the holidays can be tough. Follow these (or develop your own) simple, effective strategies for sustainable holiday nutrition.

Managing Nutrition Through the Holidays - Big Picture

It's Thanksgiving week, which for many begins the longer holiday period where they find themselves standing on a scale come January unhappy with the changes to their body over the past weeks.

Where would you like to be standing come January? What's realistic? What does a holiday period look like where you step onto the scale in January content with where you are?

Consider this. If you maintain your weight for the remainder of the year but increase your weight during the holiday period, that spells over years and decades a higher weight and increasing waist line.

This time period is meant to be enjoyed, so realistic goals probably do not look like losing a significant amount of weight during this period. Effective strategies likely do not look like only eating turkey breast and greens on Thanksgiving day with water.

Managing Nutrition Through the Holidays - Effective Strategies

Developing strategies to limit calories during this important is important. This might look like only allowing yourself one plate of food. It could look like waiting 15 minutes to see if you're still actually hungry before going for seconds. Maybe you cap the alcoholic drinks or the calories from alcohol. This means you're aiming for somewhere in between your most aggressive nutrition periods and reckless abandon.

Niki and Andrew recommend against fasting for most people. For some, this may work, but a better strategy is likely eating an extremely high-quality meal the morning of Thanksgiving. Focus on protein and fibrous vegetables.

For many, alcohol is an important area to address. Alcohol comes with many calories, it negatively affects sleep, it does not lead to satiety, and it affects your decision-making abilities.

Managing nutrition through the holidays is possible and important. Hope is not a strategy. We encourage you to set some realistic goals and intelligent strategies as part of your overall sustainable nutrition approach.

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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• Andrew on Instagram

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• Or email [email protected]

Learn how to structure holiday promotions, from timing (Black Friday, pre-Christmas, and post-New Year's), types of incentives and discounts you might offer, and the cyclical nature of the fitness business.

How to Structure Holiday Promotions: Black Friday & Pre-Christmas

The lead up to Thanksgiving and Christmas is a time people spend more money. Because you believe in your product or service, and in the case of fitness your service is clearly helping improve your clients' quality of life, it is better they spend money on your service than something they don't truly need.

This is a great time to offer things such as annual subscriptions, gift subscriptions or gift cards, and limited-time or urgent sign-ups (e.g. 5 spots at a reduced rate).

People are looking to spend money and give gifts, so encourage them to spend money on physical fitness and quality of life.

Also, avoid those times you'll likely be drowned out. You should likely have your promotions ready early the week of Thanksgiving. Pre-Christmas sales need to be out after Thanksgiving. Black Friday, and that entire weekend of American Thanksgiving, is a weekend where your ads will be drowned out and your potential clients will be inundated with offers. Deliver your promotions (ideally) before or (less ideally) after that.

You will see sales dry up around a week before Christmas. This calls for a change in strategy.

How to Structure Holiday Promotions: Post-Christmas and New Years'

People tend to find themselves less fit and having gained weight after New Years', but they tend to have less money to spend. Now is the time to make signing up as frictionless and painless as possible.

You might consider offering the first month free or some other type of free opportunity where you can deliver value and have them see how their life could be better with your service.

This is also a great time for referrals, as clients can secure free or reduced coaching as they bring their friends or family to enjoy what they have enjoyed and found value in.

Another time people are more fitness-minded is mid-to-late-Spring, when people begin to think about wearing swim suits and how they'll look with the less clothes people tend to wear in the summer.

How to structure holiday promotions? Consider the timing, what people are looking for, and likely hurdles.

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]

Deadlifts: Eat Your Spine. Is this the perfect cue or the reality of a dangerous lift? Andrew & Niki delve into the depths of the deadlift.

Do Deadlifts Eat Your Spine!?

Do deadlifts, in fact, eat your spine? It certainly feels like it sometimes.

Deadlifts train the muscles of the hamstrings, quadriceps, adductors, abs, spinal erectors, lats, and more. Because the weight of the bar is trying to round your back, you strengthen the muscles of the back by maintaining a rigid spine despite the urgings of gravity.

The deadlift, as Andrew points out, is the only one of the main barbell lifts where the center of mass changes during the lift. At first, it's only the lifter's body. Then, as the weight of the barbell and plates moves up off the ground, the weight of the bar gradually (it might take less than a second) gets added to the COM equation.

Unlike the other lifts, the bar starts from a dead stop and that's part of the point. The press is somewhat similar, but lifters often add a dip or hip whip to get the bar moving on rep 1.

Deadlifts: Eat Your Spine

Instead of describing what the deadlift does to your spine, this "eat your spine" is a cue to conceptualize what happens in the setting of the back in the bottom of the deadlift.

Typical cues involve "lifting the chest" or "arching the back" or something similar. Too often, this results in overextension. You don't want overextension but simple, normal anatomical extension. You won't be able to maintain overextension.

Andrew's cue brings to mind that the spine is not only controlled by muscles of the back but is surround by muscle (including on the anterior side).

Wrap the spine with muscle or eat your spine.

Another important component of the deadlift is feeling the weight in your whole foot. The weight should be felt evenly on the balls of your feet and heels.

One other aspect they discuss is the difficulties for those with long torsos and short arms (we're sorry - enjoy the squat!). For these lifters, they may need a lower hip position than is often considered correct.

Deadlifts: eat your spine. This is the cue you didn't realize you needed.

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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• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
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• Or email [email protected]

What is your GAMEplan? How are you accomplishing the most important - not urgent - goals for your business? How are you determining whether you have actually accomplished this goals? You do this with your GAMEplan. Matt explains the GAMEplan and how you can use it (as Barbell Logic has) to prioritize and accomplish the most important tasks for your business or life. What is Your GAMEplan? Prioritize the Important Matt shares how he discussed the business metrics that matter with Cody Miller, BLOC Coach and owner of the great gym The Strength Parlor. Cody dug in, got a hold of those metrics, and then talked more to Matt.  Well, what's next? Next, you need to identify the goals that move the business in the direction you want. Likely, you've identified areas of weakness in the metrics.  These goals need to be important. They can be urgent, but they should not be urgent but unimportant. For example, if you fail to address something in the next couple months that would cause the business to fail, that is both important and urgent. You should create goals for that.  Establish goals for the month. You should be able to easily say, with a yes or no answer, if you accomplished the goals.  What is Your GAMEplan? Get After What Matters Once you have set up your goals, identify actions you believe will accomplish your goals.  For example, you may aim to reduce churn from 4% to 3.85% in the upcoming month. Below are some potential actions to get after that goal. 

• Identify indicators of clients who are likely to cancel
• Identify time periods of elevated cancellation risk
  • Could be in the life of the client (e.g. first 6 months)
  • Could be in the calendar year (e.g. summer)
• Establish SOP for high risk clients
  • e.g. Send them an email to schedule a call
• Establish SOP for high-evelation time periods
  • Have automated onboarding & follow-up process for early clients
  • Schedule fun events during the summer (e.g. lifting meet followed by barbecue)

These are some example, and they might not actually accomplish the goals. You'll need to be able to measure progress toward the goal with metrics. Let's move onto discussing metrics.    What is Your GAMEplan? Did You Accomplish Your Goal? Metrics help you determine if you're moving toward your goals or not. They help you answer whether you've accomplished your goals or not. As you setup your GAMEplan, you'll need to schedule a time at the end of the month to assess the past month and then create a new GAMEplan for the next month. You'll also need to schedule time to accomplish the actions items. A good way to complete these is using the Pomodoro technique.  There are many ways you can err with the GAMEplan, but don't stress it too much because you'll never achieve perfection. Keep striving to get better.  You may have overly ambitious goals or far-too-easily-achievable goals. Your actions items may not have moved you toward your goals or far less than you thought. You may have put too much on your plate (or not enough).  Keep developing ambitious goals, pursue them with actions you believe will accomplish them, and measure them with metrics. Then execute and assess.  What is your GAMEplan?  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]

Mac McGregor and Niel Marr join Niki and Andrew to discuss strength for golf. Niel is a golf instructor, and shares how strength has improved his life and his golf game.

Strength for Golf: Longer Drive & Better Stability for Putting As Tiger Woods' career demonstrated, strength does not destroy one's swing or ruin one's golf game. It actually helps it. Too many unfounded claims or ideas like this float around, despite the contrary reality. Strength helps produce a faster golf swing, which means the ball can go farther. It also helps with stability for fine-tuned skills such as putting. Beyond this, strength helps create stronger, more resilient, healthier golfers. Ultimately, golfers must continue to practice the skills involved in golfing (e.g. putting and driving) while improving their ability to produce force. Strength for Golf: Coaching is Coaching Neil Marr, a golf instructor, also explains how as he's decided to start pursuing barbell coaching, he's been able to use the skills he's developed as a golf instructor. He has developed a coaching eye for golf, which can translate to a better coaching eye for the barbell lifts. He also has experience identifying errors and communicating so people can move correctly. Strength for golf and help is a boon.

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
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• Or email [email protected]

Learn the business economics - the metrics that matter - for your business. Matt Reynolds dives into macroeconomics and microeconomic or unit statistics, healthy rates, and how to calculate these statistics. You don't know the health of your business if you don't know these metrics.

Business Economics: Know the Health of Your Business

You cannot go off how you feel about your business to know if your business is doing well. The reality is real, and if you fail to know the economic realities of your business, the economic realities will confront you when abject failure slaps you in the face.

It's okay, though. Even if the metrics are bad or trending in the wrong direction, have a true, clear picture helps you identify problems and where you need to put your energy and effort to turn things around.

If your waist goes up month after month, you're getting unhealthier, whether you're measuring it or not.

These metrics give you an objective measuring standard to assess your business' health.

Business Economics: Metrics that Matter for Your Business

Matt goes through each metric one-by-one. First, though, here are the metrics, organized into macroeconomic or business-level and microeconomic or unit-level.

• Macroeconomic (business-level)
  • top line revenue
  • cost of goods
  • gross margin or gross profit
  • operating expenses
  • net profit
• Microeconomic (unit-level)
  • churn rate (or retention rate)
  • number of subscribers
  • average ticket price
  • lifetime value of client (LTV)
    • per gross revenue
    • per gross margin/profit
  • customer acquisition cost (CAC)
  • CAC:LTV ratio (as gross margin)
  • monthly recurring revenue (MRR)

Business Economics: Macroeconomic Metrics that Matter

The first and easiest metric to calculate is top line revenue. This is the money that is coming in over a period of time, typically calculated monthly (and eventually quarterly and annually - though quarterly and annual numbers matter more for larger businesses).

Whether you're looking at Stripe, ACH, the business bank account, this is simply calculating all the incoming money in a month.

The cost of goods is the cost to produce the good itself. So, for producing a product, this is the cost of materials you purchase that go into the item and costs such as shipping. For a service business such as Barbell Logic, this looks like the pay to the 1099 contractor coaches per client.

You calculate gross margin or gross profit by subtracting the cost of goods from top line revenue.

Next, you need to identify operating expenses. These are things that are required for the business but not directly related to producing the individual service or good. This might be payroll for full-time employees, printer ink, paying for a new computer, squat racks, or taking a client to lunch.

The last critical business-level metric to determine is your net profit. You calculate this by subtracting your operating expenses from your gross profit. This is truly how much money the business is making each month.

If you're a one-man team, then you get paid from this. If you lose money, you don't get paid. As the owner or CEO, though, while you get paid last you also get fired last.

Business Economics: Microeconomic Metrics that Matter

Calculate your churn rate. This is the percentage of clients you lose each month. The retention rate is the opposite (100% - churn rate).

Next note your number of subscribers. Matt says subscribers, because a customer who makes a one-time purchase (a one-time coaching session or purchases one widget) does not lead you to know what your recurring revenue is. You don't have recurring revenue in this situation.

Next know your average ticket price. What are your subscribers paying each month on average.

The number of subscribers multiplied by average ticked price equals your monthly recurring revenue (MRR).

An important statistic to calculate is your lifetime value of client (LTV - especially at gross margin).

The first thing you need to do is calculate the average customer lifespan. Divide 100 by the churn rate. So, for example, if you have 10% churn your average customer lifespan is 10 months. Below are more business economics metrics.

MRR x average customer lifespan = LTV (at gross revenue)

LTV (at gross revenue) x gross margin = LTV (at gross revenue)

Calculate your customer acquisition cost (CAC) by adding together all efforts to acquire customers. This includes marketing, sales, ads, and content you produce to market (e.g. you create a weekly newsletter, podcast, or maintain a YouTube channel).

The CAC:LTV ratio is important. 1:2 ratio is considered unhealthy or unsustainable. 1:3 is considered healthy.

If your ratio  is significantly less than 1:3 (e.g. 1:28) you should likely spend more money to acquire customers.

These are the metrics that matter to your business. These are your business economics.

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]