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Dr. Jonathon Sullivan and Noah Hayden continue their Barbell Health podcast series, this time discussing programming masters athletes.

They discuss the similarities and differences with programming younger lifters. Additionally, they cover common pitfalls, increased risks, and important considerations.

Laura Welcher joins them, sharing her strength journey and how her programming has changed over time.

You can check out more of Sully's work on the Greysteel YouTube channel.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page for free resources, recent offers, & more.

Programming Considerations for Seniors

Programming is balancing stress and recovery.

Without stress there is no adaptation. Without recovery there is no adaptation.

Seniors' muscle, bone, and connective tissue is older. Recovering from stresses becomes harder. Programming masters athletes must take this into consideration.

The risk of overloading or overstressing a masters athletes is too great, and one must err on too little, not too much, stress. An injury, with the resultant break from training and activity, is too grave and serious a risk.

Older lifters are intensity-dependent. If someone is only squatting one-hundred pounds, performing 5x5 @ 70 lbs is a waste of time.

Additionally, be weary of too much volume (and, similarly, too much frequency).

Programming Masters Athletes

Masters Athletes begin their strength journey, like anyone else, on a linear progression program.

Exercises may be modified, but the stress increases linearly while this possibility remains.

As linear progression slows, the program almost always moves into a heavy-light-medium, as opposed to Texas Method, variant (although, of course, Texas Method is essentially a form of high-low-medium).

Masters athletes almost never reach an advanced programming state. It requires a sustained consistency over a long period of time, which rarely occurs. It also requires an amount of time and focus that almost never occurs.

Lastly, most advanced programs require the lifter to undergo an accumulation of stress that brings that athlete to the brink of overtraining. For programming masters athletes, the brink of overtraining must be avoided.

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Dr. Jonathon Sullivan and Noah Hayden continue their Barbell Health podcast series, this time discussing exercise modification for seniors. John Claassen, their 93-year old client, shares his inspiring story.

You can check out more of Sully's work on the Greysteel YouTube channel.

Exercise Modification for Seniors

Seniors, athletes of aging, masters athletes - whatever you you call them - can and should strength train. Coaches may need to modify exercises to meet their ability.

Modifications may be as simple as lighter weights or broom sticks. Lifters may need to deadlift kettlebells or sit up from a chair. They may not be able to press or even bench press, but they can still train.

John Claassen's Inspiring Story

John Claassen shares his inspiring story of how he began barbell training at 89.

Like many seniors, he saw the risks and limitations that came from a lack of muscle mass and strength. He looked into exercise, connected with Sully, and eventually came to deadlift 250 pounds.

Exercise modification for seniors can be applied to his specific case. He sat down and up out of a chair instead of squatting. He had to perform incline bench press as opposed to bench press or overhead press. Instead of deadlifting a barbell, he deadlifted a kettlebell. Finally, he curled with a broomstick to begin.

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Dr. Jonathon Sullivan and Noah Hayden continue their Barbell Health podcast series, this time discussing in-depth the strength prescription for the sick aging phenotype.

This episode laid out Noah's thoughts on exercise & programming criteria, and an important discussion into the role the criteria play for the coach.

You can check out more of Sully's work on the Greysteel YouTube channel.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page for free resources, recent offers, & more.

Strength Prescription

In the last podcast, Sully & Noah discussed the problems with conventional medicine and its inability to treat the sick aging phenotype.

Keeping the notion of medicine, with the intent to actually address your athlete's root problems, helps frame the problem (and the solution).

If force production underlies the various fitness attributes, and strength is force production, clients need to gain strength.

Because strength helps all the physical attributes, barbell exercise need to be incorporated into the exercise prescription the client receives.

As the client progresses, conditioning (especially HIIT) can be added, but initially, a simple, linear progression provides enough stress.

Dosage Criteria for the Strength Prescription

If we think about this under the concept of medicine, be start to think about dosage, the frequency of the dosage, and what exercises fall under that prescription.

Barbells are good. Strength is good. How do we pick exercises.

What follows is Sully and Noah discussing the traditional 4 exercise selection criteria, then Noah positing criteria for programming.

Sully suggests the exercise criteria are a post hoc justification of the exercises coaches would program anyway. Certainly, for most coaches, these criteria become engrained, and rarely (if ever) are they running through these criteria to choose an exercise for their lifters.

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Dr. Jonathon Sullivan and Noah Hayden are joined by RN Ann Buszard. They discuss how typical or conventional medicine today fails to address the root causes of most issues, including the Sick Aging Phenotype. They talk about how exercise medicine, specifically strength training with barbells, is the cure.

You can check out more of Sully's work on the Greysteel YouTube channel.

Bad Medicine and the Sick Aging Phenotype

Too much medicine fails to address root causes. While modern trauma care can save life and limb, more and more reasons that people end up in ERs cannot ultimately be addressed in ERs. These causes need to be addressed earlier.

Exercise medicine, as opposed to conventional medicine, offers a way to address what Sully calls the Sick Aging Phenotype. You know it. You may have it. If you don't, you almost certainly know someone who has it.

The Sick Aging Phenotype is that combination of illnesses that worsen as many people age. It includes things such as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.

Too many people accept that aging comes with a growing list of limitations.

Exercise Medicine with Barbells

Exercise medicine with barbells is safe, healthy, and effective. Contrary to many people's misconceptions, it doesn't mean getting huge nor is does it come with a high risk of injury.

Instead, barbell medicine helps strengthen and add muscle and other tissue. This can give people more capabilities, as opposed to taking them off the table.

Exercise medicine can give you years of quality life.

Benefits of Voluntary Hardship

This repeated process of doing difficult things regularly doesn't just come with physical and biological benefits, but spiritual and psychological benefits as well.

It builds confidence, as well as muscle, and helps athletes of aging realize they can do more, not just in the gym but in their everyday life, that they may have considered impossible.

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Niki talks to Brittany Snyder, a Professional Barbell Coach, nutrition coach, and the Director of Nutrition at Barbell Logic. Brittany shares her journey of how she ditched all or nothing nutrition, shoved shame to the side, gave the fundamentals a chance, and finally created a sense of control with her nutrition.

All or Nothing Nutrition...Generally Leads to Nothing

Avoid fat. Carbs are evil. Only eat meat. No, avoid all meat and meat products. You should be fasting. You should be eating small meals throughout the day.

Cut it out. If any of the aforementioned approaches work for you, that is awesome. For most of us, extremes don't work (at least not for long).

We're talking about making sustainable nutrition habits that last for the rest of our life. We're talking about walking around feeling and looking better, being healthier, and building the virtue that voluntary hardship brings.

Voluntary hardship, though, isn't about the the extreme white knuckle 3-week diet plan. It's about taking up the challenges that come with moving toward our goals.

Give the Fundamentals a Chance

Not every diet is right for every person. Like many people program hop from lifting program to lifting program, too many people bounce from all or nothing nutrition approach to extreme diet.

Furthermore, people tend to know what foods are unhealthy and what are healthy. While there's disagreement, and people avoid certain foods for a variety of reasons, good, sustainable diets will involve building habits that last, move you closer to your goals, and have you burning more calories than you consume.

Identify areas that you can most easily change to create the biggest results. That first means identifying what you're baseline is.

For Brittany, she realized she was consuming about 800 calories after dinner every night. Her first step was to reduce that to 500.

Your first MED step might be different, but there's often one behavior or action that is creating the biggest damage.

To move toward your goal, you don't need to end that damage but rather limit that damage.

All or nothing nutrition generally leads to nothing.

Nutrition Budgets Empower

One approach that works for many because it empowers it giving a nutrition budget.

It might be a certain number of calories for a meal or time period (e.g. after dinner). It could be a caloric limit to alcohol or a limit to the number of drinks per week.

What this does, however, is allow people to maintain their non-negotiables but reduce their damage. For example, you don't have to give up drinking after dinner, but if you're drinking 3, 4, or 5 drinks before bed, reducing that to 2 or 3 can make a big difference.

Shove Shame to the Side

Emotionally detaching from her behaviors and looking at them like data has really helped.

Your decisions don't make you a bad person and if there is room for growth, that is fine. The shame only hurts, and you need to focus on what you can do and when you slip up, return to the sustainable habits. If you're having trouble sustaining the habits, maybe a different approach would work better.

Ditch all or nothing nutrition. Shove shame to the side. Give the fundamentals a chance. And listen to this very informative, enjoyable, and quotable podcast.

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Online strength coaching provides the most value, flexibility, effectiveness, and personalization of any coaching method. It enhances the quality of life of coaches and clients.

This is a rebroadcast of episode 408.

Online Strength Coaching Provides More Flexibility

Online coaching allows someone seeking high-quality coaching to find the coach that's right for them - not the coach or personal trainer that's simply close.

It allows clients to continue when they vacation or travel, and it allows coaches to continue to coach their clients when they vacation or travel.

Online coaching allows lifters to still receive coaching if they're unable to train during the scheduled time block. With in-person coaching, if something arises that prevents the lifter from coming to the gym at the normal time, that lifter typically still has to pay, doesn't get the coaching, and might not be able to lift.

Modern life comes with moving for many people. You can keep the same coach if you move or your coach moves. This enables coaches and clients to have 5+ year coach-client relationships, which is extremely rare and challenging with in-person coaching.

Are you sick and can't come to the gym but still want to get something done, albeit at a reduced difficultly? No problem - your online strength coach can modify your program, and you're not at risk for getting anyone else sick.

Online Strength Coaching is More Effective

The primary value of in-person strength coaching that we and others have stressed is how fast the coach can get the client lifting with correct technique.

We get lifters moving correctly under the barbell quickly and in less time investment by the coach than in-person coaching.

The typical initial session is 90 minutes and requires the travel time and other inconveniences of meeting someone at a certain time and place.

Through a series of roughly 5-minute videos the professional barbell coach can get you moving correctly, and almost certainly in fewer than 18 videos. This amounts to less time than initial 90-minute session.

Also, this assumes the client leaves the 90-minute session with perfect form and does not return with the almost inevitable form creep.

It simply is not that critical that the client's technique is perfect within the first couple sessions. Furthermore, changes made through online strength coaching seem to stick and last longer.

Online Strength Coaching Provides More Value

A professional barbell coach can deliver high-quality coaching with multiple touchpoints each weeks at a much lower cost to the client than in-person coaching. Likely, it will be 25% or less of the cost of in-person coaching.

Even though the coach charges less, the coach makes more money more minute or per hour. This enables the strength coach to have more clients and coach more people - ultimately providing more value to more people.

This can be done from where the coach wants to live, whether that be sunny southern California or in a small town in the midwestern United States.

Online Strength Coaching Improves Quality of Life

Online coaching increases compliance because of its flexibility, reduced cost, and convenience. This ultimately mean it produces more lasting changes. These changes improve clients' quality of life.

For the coach, the convenience and flexibility of coaching from home improves their quality of life, allows them to deliver more value to more clients, and is a win-win.

GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. There's no contract and you can cancel anytime. Start experiencing strength now: https://bit.ly/3EJI18v

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Walking seems so simple and easy, so mundane and pedestrian (literally) that it couldn't constitute an important part of your overall health and fitness plan, right?

Wrong. Walking provides innumerable health and wellness benefits. These benefits include physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. Don't pooh pooh walking. Whether you're tracking your steps, hiking, or going for short walks throughout the day, consider adding walking to your routine.

The wonders of walking abound. Get out there and walk!

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page for free resources, recent offers, & more.

Physical Health Benefits of Walking

As walking is a physical activity, the most obvious benefits, like other forms of physical activity, are physical health benefits.

More walking every day - more steps - is correlated with better health outcomes.

It may seem obvious, but humans aren't meant to sit all day in front of some type of screen.

The low level physical activity fits solidly within the aerobic energy system, and unless you're walking briskly or up a steep incline, you shouldn't have to exert yourself too much.

In addition to simply more activity, walking typically happens outside, which provides vitamin D from the sun, something that too many of us are lacking.

Looking into the wonders of walking? Start with the benefits to your health and fitness.

Mental Health Benefits of Walking

You can't talk about walking without mental health. Physical activity and exercise, of course, improves mental health.

Walking for most people doesn't induce the same stress that a hard conditioning or lifting workout does. It can get us out in nature, under the sun, and can be done alone, with someone, or with the accompaniment of a podcast or audiobook.

Some people meditate when they walk, as opposed to the more traditional form where you sit and meditate.

Whether you're looking for some alone time, some time with your partner or friend, or some time to listen to a podcast or audiobook, the wonders of walking include mental health benefits.

Wonders of Walking - Time to Think

Related to the above but deserving of its own separate mention, is the ability to think and have thoughts arise.

Many artists, writers, and important figures have sworn by the benefits of walking. It can be an opportunity to do some deep work, away from the distractions of the home, the phone, and the computer.

Have something that you're worried about? Think about it during a walk. Or, avoid thinking about it, and you might find that solutions and ideas occur to you, even though you weren't actively thinking about the challenge.

Wonders of Walking - Ease, Simplicity, Availability

Maybe it doesn't need to be said, but maybe the primary beauty of walking is how almost anyone can do it.

It doesn't require hardly any equipment at all. You should probably have some shoes and weather appropriate attire, but really you can walk barefoot if you have to.

Just walk.

Start to develop different routes, so that you have a variety of lengths and scenery to choose from. Pick easier, shorter routes around your neighborhood, and maybe some walks further away in nature, when you really want to get away.

GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. There's no contract and you can cancel anytime. Start experiencing strength now: https://bit.ly/3EJI18v

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Strength and endurance - can you do both!? Yes, in fact, you can.

While the adaptations and strength and endurance conflict, you can reach high levels in both.

CJ shares his story of ruck marching, voluntary hardship, lifting, and joy. He describes how he balanced life, lifting, and rucking and realized he needed aerobic endurance events to be part of his life.

He also shares how you could add endurance training to your program if you miss it (or want to try it out).

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page for free resources, recent offers, & more.

Joy Lost but Rekindled

CJ enjoys rucking. He had a background of aerobic endurance events in the military and his free time.

During a particularly busy time in his life, he did not realized what he had lost and how he had repeated a foreign narrative of strength exclusivity that left him cold. Strength and endurance are mutually exclusive, right!?

Then he injured himself on what should have been an easy event, that he could have crushed a few years ago.

He did not want to be that fragile and remembered he enjoyed long, slow, endurance events.

He evaluated his priorities, preferences, and available time, and decided to start rucking again.

Rucking as Lifter - Strength and Endurance

What's rucking?

Rucksack is the German word for backpack. Its background comes from the necessity of Soldiers to move from one place to another with the equipment they need to fight.

More recently, civilians seeking voluntary hardship have begun to ruck by themselves or in group events.

Strictly, it's an endurance event, but strength and endurance benefit performance, as rucksacks can be heavy, and having a muscular frame helps.

The other aspect of rucking, especially considering its martial history, is the communal aspect - this was something Soldiers did together.

Shared Suffering

Unless you train in a great black iron gym or have some good training partners, lifting is a solitary exercise modality.

GoRuck and other organizations bring shared suffering into the event. You have to work together with other people to accomplish the event.

This is something CrossFit gets right. The community aspect maybe more than anything else may be what keeps people coming back to CrossFit gyms.

If you're looking to pursue strength and endurance events and looking for more social time, why not combined them?

Suffer with your friends.

Strength and Endurance

It is true that you cannot pursue maximal strength and endurance. These adaptations limit each other.

You can, however, pursue high levels of adaptations in both areas (as in better in both areas than the vast majority of people).

This requires time and commitment, but it is possible.

Ultimately, you need to decide on what matters to you - how much do you care about pursuing or excelling in a certain modality.

If you've deadlifted 550 lbs, how much work are you willing to do to hit 600 lbs?

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What does conditioning for lifters look like? Do you need to do "cardio"? We examine conditioning & cardio for strength athletes. This is a re-release of episode 396.

Conditioning vs Cardio

"Cardio" is a nebulous and negative term, like diet.

I need to go do some "cardio." What's the best "cardio" for fat loss?

The term "cardio" comes from the word cardiovascular as in the cardiovascular system of the heart, lunges, and blood vessels that pumps oxygen and nutrients to your organs.

Conditioning for lifters comes with the implication of a goal. You need to complete conditioning for health, or for your sport, or for general physical preparedness.

Conditioning for Lifters - Fat Loss

Why would a strength athlete include conditioning in his program?

There's generally 3 reasons why someone would consider doing "cardio" or conditioning:

• Weight loss / fat loss
• Being "in shape" or general physical preparedness (GPP)
• Cardiovascular health / energy systems efficiency

Lots of people think they need to do cardio for the first reason, and it's really the worst reason to "do cardio."

Why? Because cleaning up nutrition habits far surpasses the impact of conditioning. Often times, people increase their food intake after cardio, as their appetite increases as well.

This doesn't mean that conditioning cannot help in the calorie burning side of the calorie equation. But it's not the first MED step to take.

Conditioning for Lifters - GPP

People have an intuitive sense of being in or out of shape, and they're not wrong.

This often comes from a suddenly more rigorous physical event, such as a hike or sporting event.

You find yourself out of breath and hating life, and feel out of shape.

This is really recognizing the inefficiency of your energy systems, and that you're cardiovascular systems is delivering oxygen poorly.

Life can throw us unexpected challenges, and being prepared for them is a good thing.

Conditioning for Lifters - Health

As the previous reason started to lead into, conditioning helps improve the efficiency of the body's energy systems: phosphagen, glycolytic, and aerobic.

Training these systems improve your cardiovascular health and is correlated with longevity and overall health.

Just as stressing the muscles helps improve strength and effects hypertrophy, and these are correlated with health, stressing these energy systems is good for them and for your health.

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HIIT is the best way to improve your conditioning and health and help with fat loss. Consider high intensity interval training for your conditioning.

Energy Systems Overview

HIIT's benefits come from how it uses and benefits the body's energy systems. Let's quickly investigate the body's energy systems.

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the energy currency of the body. ATP breaks down into adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and a phosphate group. This reaction produces energy that the body uses.

For low intensity, long duration efforts your body pulls energy from its aerobic energy system. This is likely the energy system you're using now, and the one your body uses most of the time.

When energy requirements increase, however, the body has two other energy systems to meet its energy requirements.

For extremely short duration, high intensity efforts (such as HIIT), your body uses its phosphagen system. This takes advantage of the ATP readily available in your muscles. It also benefits from creatine phosphate (CP). Creatine phosphate adds its phosphate group to ADP to produce another ATP and produce more energy.

This system only lasts about 10 seconds.

For high intensity, medium duration efforts, the body uses glycolysis. This is the breakdown of carbohydrates that produces energy less quickly than the phosphagen system but more quickly than the aerobic system's oxidation.

This system lasts for maybe a couple minutes.

HIIT: Why & What?

High intensity interval training involves high intensity, low duration efforts with rest to allow for recovery in between intervals. During the interval, you will be using your phosphagen and glycolytic systems, but during the recovery both the glycolytic and aerobic systems will be providing ATP to replenish the ATP stored in your muscle.

Because high intensity training requires all your energy systems when you consider recovery, it improves all your energy systems.

Low intensity, long duration efforts do not provide the same benefits to high intensity.

This is similar to how strength benefits endurance but endurance does not benefit strength.

If you can do 40 push-ups, doing sets of push-ups will provide little to no benefit to your bench press. Improving your bench press, however, will help increase your push-up numbers.

High intensity interval training helps your heart health and prepares you for potential events in life that require heavy breathing efforts that are longer than a 5-rep set of squats.

How to Do HIIT

High intensity interval training exercises should be low skill and low impact.

This is where CrossFit often goes wrong, as they often perform high impact and high skill movements, such as high repetition, heavy Olympic lift variations for conditioning workouts.

When and how often should you perform high intensity interval training? How long should your work to rest ratio be? How many rounds should you do? The general guidelines are below:

• 15-20 seconds hard effort
• 1:3 to 1:4 work-to-rest ratio
• 5-10 rounds
• 2-3 times per week
• perform after your lifting

The above are rough guidelines. When you begin, just as with lifting, have your rest periods be longer, perform fewer rounds, and begin with only 2 times per week.

Some examples of good exercises or machines to use include sled pushes, stationary bike, or rower.

HIIT for Fat Loss

Why does high intensity interval training help improve fat loss?

These intervals don't take much time to do, which is one of their benefits.

After you perform one of these workouts, however, your basal metabolic rate (BMR) will increase for about 24 hours after the workout.

What does this mean? You will burn more calories performing the same amount of activity after a HIIT workout than after an aerobic workout, even if the aerobic workout burned more calories.

GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. There's no contract and you can cancel anytime. Start experiencing strength now: https://bit.ly/3EJI18v

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