Beast over Burden powered by Barbell Logic

Is it time to change programs when your frustrated and want to blow up your current program? Niki & Andrew how to approach this logically when reason is the furthest thing from your mind.

I Want Something Different - NOW!

You miss a PR, tweak your back, or can't fit into your favorite jeans. You're ready to blow up your program.

But is it time to change programs?

Maybe, but it's first time to think about things.

Don't react in emotion and make your life harder. Wait before you send that angry message to your coach. Hold off before you decide to change everything and go off in a completely different direction.

Try to detach and observe yourself. Identify and allow the emotions and thoughts that naturally arise. Consider the circumstances that created the current situation.

Next, it's time to think.

Is It Time to Change Programs - Actually?

Let's talk tradeoffs. You can't have it all.

Many times a client, dejected by a bad workout, will request a big change. Once she realizes what that shift would involve, she decides it's not worth it.

Niki discusses trying to identify where the locus of the problem is. Is it a "me" thing. A "me" problem might be that she did more work than the coach prescribed, so she wasn't as recovered as she might have been.

Or, did circumstances create the bad workout, This means things out of the control of you and your coach. Examples abound, but include deaths, divorce, new kids, new job, move, major illness, and more.

Lastly, it could be a programming thing. As the coach, you need to dig into what led to the missed rep. Even if circumstances and the lifter affected the miss, can you do a better job accounting for these? You probably can.

Niki thinks about categorizing things into resources and outcome here. The outcome, in the workout, was a missed rep. Do you actually want your outcome to change?

So, is it time to change programs? Maybe, but not after some deliberation. It might make more sense to just make an MED change.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

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When it comes to pricing, less is more. Fewer options means less hassle for you and less decision fatigue for your customers. When it comes to pricing, fewer options is better for your business.

Pricing: Fewer Options is Better

It's easy, especially as a small business, to bend over backwards for each customer. You develop a different price for each customer, and before you know it every customer is paying a different price.

Knock this off.

Don't have a scarcity mindset. Develop few pricing options for your customers. This forces your customers to make a decision and simplifies your billing.

Pricing: Less is More

When it comes to revenue, you want monthly recurring revenue (MRR).

This means that each month, the revenue recurs. The client pays the same amount, each month, automatically.

Do not force your client to opt-in each month and decide whether they want to pay you each month. This must be automatic, whether it be through ACH or Stripe or through a credit card.

This allows you to predict revenue each month.

Furthermore, contracts are unnecessary. If clients cancel, they cancel, but make the signup process simple and painless, make payments automatic, have few options, but then work to retain your clients.

Relatedly, charge the same each month. This might mean that certain months, your clients receive more service, other months they receive less.

Even starting with good intentions of few options and automatic payments, you can exception your way into infinite payment amounts. Even in December, when clients may train less and you may have fewer options, the price remains the same.

Ultimately, this is convenient for you AND your client. Both you and your client have the same expectations.

Now, it's your time to deliver more value than the price they're paying each month.

Pricing: less is more.

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/

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What keeps you training after the easy PRs, injuries, years or decades of workouts. Why do you keep exercising? Niki and Andrew discuss training motivation over the long haul.

What Keeps You Training?

Why continue to lift, run, track macros after you've hit your goal? How do Andrew and Niki find motivation after decades training?

It different from person to person, but over time the process of working out and doing hard things becomes a habit and something you derive joy from.

This doesn't mean you're feeling pleasure every second of training, but you your enjoy the process and the results and you identify as someone who trains. As Arnold says, it's like brushing your teeth: you just do it every day.

You don't stop because the PRs are gone - there are no toothbrushing PRs.

There is some interplay of discipline and motivation. Motivation waxes and wanes. The discipline needed to continue should (generally) go down. This isn't the case when you hit those rough patches and you have to really dig down and think about what you want out of training.

Training Motivation

Andrew mentions the fear of soreness from squatting after a week without squats (those who know, know). Try not squatting for a week and then come back and squat and see how you feel the next day.

More importantly, Andrew talks about how he feels terrible after a few days without exercising. You grow used to the habit, to the point where not training leads to you feeling bad.

This applies to nutrition too. If you eat consistently healthy over a long period, you will feel bad eating large doses of processed foods.

Niki enjoys being a superjacked women and identifying as that.

As Niki has been unable to set 1RM PRs on the squat and deadlift like she used to enjoy doing, she had to look toward the tonnage going up. Beyond that, though, seeking hard workouts has helped.

While a hard workout does not equal a training plan, training has to be hard for progress. You can take this idea too far, but our tagline is simple, hard, effective for a reason.

So, what keeps you training?

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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Customer service is king, especially in a post-COVID world. If you want to run a successful business, have great customer service and you will stand out.

Customer Service is King in a Post-COVID World

Customer service standards have fallen since 2020 and COVID-19.

You notice it at nice restaurants and hotels, at airlines and in public bathrooms.

Employees seem bothered to help customers. Companies don't answer phone calls or respond to texts or emails.

The expectation to tip has spread to everything, with a reduced level of service and an increased rate of tipping.

You buy a cup of coffee, fill it up yourself, and clean up after yourself, and when you pay and the employee flips the tablet around, you see recommended tips for 20, 25, or 30%.

Workers should get paid good wages. You should tip well for employees whose wages rely on tips. But what has happened to customer service?

Customer Service is King for Your Business' Success

If you're a customer, this has seemingly nothing but downside. Have lower expectations and reward businesses that provide good customer service.

You see, though, the opportunity for existing or potential business owners. Have good customer service!

If you take care of your customers, you will tower above other companies. In a post-COVID world, where customer service standards have plummeted, good customer service will set you apart and lead to your business' success.

Control what you can in this economy and this world, and have great customer service.

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

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

Too busy to train!? Not any more! Learn ways to get more done in less time so you can continue to remain consistent & work toward your goals.

Too Busy to Train!? - How it Happens

How does someone get so busy that they can no longer train?

This happens for different reasons for different people. Some may come from new life challenges, but sometimes this arises from reasons within the gym.

Toward the end of LP or during advanced training, lifters may creep the time between reps, intentionally or otherwise.

Lifters may deliberately decide to increase the rest, having heard that this is what serious lifters do. You're not doing the program if you're unwilling to rest at 8, 10, or even 12 minutes.

The lifter then gets emotionally connected to driving the weight up on the bar, but if he or she shortens the rest time, the weight must come down. This can lead to 2+ hour workouts.

Too Busy to Train!? - Not Any More

If lengthening rest times have have caused workouts to grow, then rest times need shortened. This may mean reducing weight on the bar. This comes with a changed mindset - have to realize that the price of the PRs is too high, and that the extra-long workouts are unsustainable.

Don't let the perception of the workout be what keeps you from doing it.

Lifters will need to be strict about the rest times, using a timer and not going down cell phone wormholes.

Workouts may need time caps as well. For example, Niki sometimes commits to 45 minutes of focused effort, but at 45 minutes she stops the workout. Get some meat and potatoes main lifts done, then complete as much accessory or conditioning work as you can in the remaining time.

Lifters may need to stick to one or two lifts per workout.

Or, fewer, longer, full body workouts may be needed.

Giving lifters options to do more if they feel good allows more ambitious days on those days where the lifters are feeling good and have more time.

Keeping lifts simple to reduce setup time is important too. This isn't the time for bands, chains, or maybe even pins - keep things simple and look for how you can reduce time that is not critical to adding more stress in less 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/

Connect with the hosts

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• Andrew on Instagram

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• Or email [email protected]

PRs measure progress toward your clients' goals - so you need to track & celebrate your clients' PRs, because PRs matter.

PRs Measure Progress Toward Your Clients' Goals

PRs matter.

Consistency underlies success. PRs pave the road to your clients accomplishing their goals.

Why?

They provide dopamine hits that encourage continued work toward building habits that move lifters toward their goals.

Early on, PRs tend to be easy - easy to track, celebrate, and establish.

The lifter's squat increases, the athlete can do more push-ups, the runner can run their mile faster, or the client's waist has shrunk.

Over time, establishing PRs becomes more difficult, as the PRs are not so clear.

Ensure PRs Connect to Your Clients' Goals

PRs measure progress toward your clients' goals.

Your clients' goals change over time, so you must ensure the PRs you're tracking and celebrating actually matter to your client.

If you continue to push the client's deadlift 1RM, but she wants to lose weight, you're missing the point.

PRs may track:

• consistency
• healthy habits (sleep, water, steps)
• nutrition (macros, protein, drinks of alcohol, number of meals prepped)
• strength (different rep maxes, tonnage, PRs for different lifts)
• hypertrophy (leanness, size of muscles)

You should know your clients' goals. PRs measure progress toward your clients' goals, so you should know your clients' PRs that matter and help assess movement toward their goals.

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]

I want to gain muscle and lose weight. Is this a realistic goal? How does this look, if it is?

It is possible to do this, over time, sustainably, by building healthy habits.

Check out the first part of this 2-part series.

Andrew & Niki explore the journeys of different "typical" Barbell Logic clients and what these processes look like.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

Gain Muscle and Lose Weight - Older, Fluffy Man

This type of client tends to be a busy, middle-aged professional and dad who's put a bit more fat around the belly than he'd like. One might call him fluffy.

Certain habits that didn't lead to a large waist when they were younger have caught up with them. Some likely culprits include alcohol, large (especially weekend meals) highly processed meals, or fatty grilled meats.

Often times, these clients can white knuckle fairly strictly for awhile, and can often eat healthy on weekdays, but weekends and maybe summer tend to present challenges.

They may have made progress in the gym or in some physical activity, but whatever progress they have made no longer matters compared to their waist and appearance (plus how they feel).

They may tend to be on or off, so they have big swings of calories.

When helping these clients, addressing those big swings is important. It does not mean that they cannot eat these foods, but there needs to be some portion control so some pizza does not turn into a whole pizza. A drink doesn't turn into 3 every night.

The other big consideration is sleep. Building good sleep habits helps here, both with decision making, hormones, and overall health. Additionally, if alcohol is a problem, bringing attention to how alcohol affects sleep can help.

Gain Muscle and Lose Weight - Busy Mom

The busy mom shares some similarities with the previous client, but some important differences exist too.

These clients tend to have younger children, and with parental duties and work duties, duties to themselves often come last.

When any area falls short, they tend to beat themselves up.

The good development for clients like this, is that more women are accepting that adding muscles leads to looking better. They are often not simply looking to "be skinny."

Similar to the men, they need to avoid the unstable nutrition (the "I deserve this" meal that leads to guilt).

Giving these clients validation with simply getting certain things done is critical. Completing a workout, even if it does not go well (it's a "bad" workout) matters.

Filling out the VFD, meal prep - the validation of building those habits is huge.

Talking about 3 months as opposed to a year or a couple weeks is big.

Also, need to shake the "1200 calories" anchor point.

You Can Gain Muscle and Lose Weight

When it comes to gaining muscle and losing weight, it takes time, it takes healthy habits, and it takes realistic expectations.

If you look at the above and the previous clients, the discussion centers around nutrition. Training matters, but training does not have to change very much.

One consideration may be the focus of PRs. You as the coach may consider drawing attention to different types of PRs (higher rep, different variations, or bodyweight exercises). Or, you may consider discussing PRs at lower bodyweight.

Lastly, conditioning, while we love conditioning, is not the way to gain muscle and lose weight. Do conditioning for your health. Don't try to burn your way into a calorie deficit.

That being said, conditioning is a healthy habit that we fully endorse.

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]

Online coaching is the best coaching for coaches and clients. Coaches gain wider access to clients, more flexibility of time and location to coach, and more dollar-per-hour. Clients can access great coaches across the globe, train during travel or vacation when it works for them, and pay less than in-person coaching. Plus, online coaching builds consistency which leads to more gains.

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.

Online Coaching is Better for Coaches

Online coaching is the best coaching for coaches.

In-person coaching ties coaches to the tyranny of the schedule and the gym. This leads to long days, much of which may not be paid for but certainly counts in your calculus for quality of life.

You can travel - or even go on vacation - and coach. You can coach when it works for your schedule, asynchronously with your clients.

Online coaching enables you to gain clients from around the world - as long as you can communicate - which is especially great if you have a niche that you struggle to fill in your local area.

Lastly - but not least importantly - you can provide more value to your clients in less time earning more dollar-per hour. Really - in less time than you spent with in-person clients you can make far more per hour, where and when you want to coach, with clients better suited toward your particular strengths.

Online Coaching is Better for Clients

Online coaching is the best coaching for clients.

Clients can finally find the coaches they want - great coaches - not simply the coaches in the local gyms. Whether it's your preferences or certain challenges most coaches cannot address, you can find a coach that can help you.

Lifters pay less monthly than they do for in-person coaching. It costs more money to meet someone for an hour multiple times a week at the same time and place. With asynchronous coaching, you pay less, and still get programming and technique feedback.

Lastly, you can still train if you're on vacation or travel for business. This leads to consistency, and consistency leads to more gains (define gains how you want - we mean you move closer to your goal or crush your goal sooner and set new goals).

Online coaching is the best coaching for lifters and coaches.

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
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• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

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

I want to lose weight and gain muscle - don't we all!

What is possible and what does this process look like over time? We explore this in a 2-part podcast series.

Andrew & Niki explore the journeys of different "typical" Barbell Logic clients and what these processes look like.

Lose Weight and Gain Muscle - the Goal

Just about everyone who comes to a fitness goal wants more muscle (maybe strength) and less bodyfat. Almost no one wants to get stronger at any cost.

How do we conceptualize this and help clients progress?

This is the goal, not the process. Let's first examine the goal then look at the process.

It's important to flesh this goal out. Is the client looking back to a past body (e.g. high school or college)? How does this look? How does this body perform? What feelings are associated with the body (both physical and emotional)?

Or does the client have some idea in mind that he or she has never achieved - maybe a celebrity or influencer. Similar to the above, how does this body look, feel, and perform?

Making this concrete helps really refine the goal and let's the coach better understand what the client is looking for.

Some discussion may need to occur about the reality of the goal. The client may be looking at someone with extreme genetics at a snapshot of that person's life. This person could have a different body type. Lastly, this may involve more work than the client actually wants to do and take longer than the client expects.

This does not mean that we shoot the client's goals down or say "that's not possible." It's a discussion about what that process might look like and bringing some experience to the goal.

This brings us nicely to the process. What might the journey look like?

Lose Weight and Gain Muscle - the Process

While people may have unrealistic goals (make me look like Dorian Yates) it's typically not the goal that is unrealistic, per se, but the expected time and work required.

Clients need to begin building training and nutrition habits. They need to build up, refine, and solidify these habits that, over time, will lead to lasting results.

While the end goal remains in mind, these habits serve as the building blocks to the for the cathedral of health and fitness the clients want. The week, month, or even 3-month horizon needs to turn into the 6-month, year, years, and really lifelong process of health and fitness.

These are the daily habits of eating enough protein and vegetables, avoiding the extra calories that lead to weight gain, and getting in the gym and getting the work done when you don't want to.

These may be unglamorous but they're truly glorious.

This also means separating times where you focus on adding flesh (muscle, please) and when you focus on losing flesh (fat, please). As Layne Norton says, if you chase two rabbits, you catch none. The lifelong goal of getting leaner will involve periods where you gain weight and periods where you lose weight, with healthy habits during both.

Niki and Andrew begin an investigation (that will continue next week) of different clients and what the journey might look like. Let's examine the first client.

Lose Weight and Gain Muscle - Underweight Middle-Aged Man

We begin with John, a 30-year old man who is 5'10" and 170 pounds. He played basketball when he was younger, dabbles in the gym and enjoys physical activities on the weekend. Having finally worked his way up to a job where he can afford coaching, he's ready to invest in professional coaching to meet his goals.

John begins with linear progression with a few compound lifts, allowing himself to learn technique, build the habit of training, and see the weight go up on the bar. As the weight increases, he learns how to grind on heavier weights.

With nutrition, he increases his calories, but only slightly. This might mean adding an extra 300 calories a day. This also means prioritizing protein, if he doesn't eat enough, and shifting more calories toward whole food sources.

As the PRs slow - as LP and early intermediate gains come to an end - reexamining metrics can help. Driving up the weight won't happen as much, so looking at other metrics can help keep the big picture in mind (remember, he didn't sign up to get a 600 pound deadlift - though he may eventually get one).

This could be a time to cut, allowing him to see some of the muscle he has gained. It could be a time to maintain, to allow for a leaning out but less quickly.

It probably is not a great time to take him from 190 or 200 to 225 or higher. Unless his goals have radically shifted, this plan utterly fails to meet his goals.

Having built the initial habits of training and nutrition, these habits get built upon, metrics get refined, and progress continues though slows.

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]

Prioritize the important for a more meaningful & productive life by getting unstuck from the tyranny of the urgent.

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).

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 the Barbell Logic podcast landing page.

The Important and the Urgent

When conceptualizing and prioritizing tasks, use the Eisenhower Matrix. This is a quad chart President Eisenhower created that organizes tasks into

• not urgent and not important - reduce or eliminate
• urgent but not important - delegate or automate
• urgent and important - schedule & pomodoro or delegate to those who can do them better
• not urgent but important - schedule, prioritize, and defend

Urgent tasks are urgent because of other people and have time constraints. Important tasks are important because they are important to you - they serve your goals and align with your values.

Ironically, you can often find yourself ignoring those things most important to you because they're not important to others (not urgent but important).

Because urgent tasks are important to others, you can find yourself struggling to overthrow the tyranny of the urgency and actually accomplish (or even work toward) those things that are important to you.

Prioritize the Important - Urgency as Enemy

Matt has some advice all the four categories above and how you can approach them.

Reduce or eliminate tasks that are neither urgent nor important. These are things no one is telling you to do and you don't find valuable. This might be scrolling social media or binge-watching movies.

Delegate or automate urgent but non-important tasks. These tasks must get done, but they're not important to you. Maximize efficiency so that someone else can do them or you do them efficiently.

It may seem like urgent and important tasks - because they're BOTH urgent and important - should fill your time, but that's not the case. Why!? Because you can still completely ignore the important but non-urgent. Schedule and pomodoro these tasks or delegate them to someone who can do them better.

Lastly, schedule, prioritize, and defend the important but non-urgent. Try to create some false urgency by putting them in your schedule and now allowing distractions. If you don't prioritize the important, no one will.

When you do the above, you order the chaos. Things you never could accomplish will suddenly be doable (and eventually done).

Remember, this is Barbell Logic, and health and fitness is important but not urgent (until, for some, they have a serious illness or limitation that seems to bring an urgency to the important).

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]