
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Rick Brunner joins Justin Lima and Yosef Johnson for a conversation spanning four decades of sports nutrition and performance science.
Rick shares how his trips to the Soviet Union in the 1980s connected him with scientists studying creatine, adaptogens, recovery, and athletic performance—eventually leading him to introduce creatine to elite American athletes around 1987.
The guys dive into supplement quality, brain health, recovery, neuromuscular performance, reaction and quickness, and how nutrition should work alongside training.
Rick also explains why the future isn't simply about building bigger muscles. It's about developing reactive, healthy, quick muscle through the integration of training, nutrition, recovery, and measurement.
___
Buy Supertraining to Read Along with Us - use code STRONGER20 to save 20%
https://uaconcepts.com/product/supertraining
___
CONNECT:
🌎Site: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/
📝Blog: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/blog/
___
From our sponsors:
Hawkin Dynamics
🌎Site: https://www.hawkindynamics.com/
Hawkin Dynamics is the world leader in force plate solutions. Wireless hardware, intuitive software,
and powerful analysis make Hawkin Dynamics the best choice for any coach or trainer. Make sure you check them out in the link above.
Power Lift
🌎Site: https://www.powerliftusa.com/
Power Lift is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of American-made strength and conditioning equipment. They understand that your Brand is important and offer several diverse ways to incorporate that Brand into your strength equipment. For more about Power Lift click the link above.
Dashr
🌎Site: https://www.dashrsystems.com/
Dashr is a performance testing company best known for its laser timing, but also integrates with Teambuildr and offers a free Player Profile app used by 6k+ athletes. Beyond timing, they provide a full suite of testing solutions including verticals, broad jumps, RSI, biometrics, reaction, and AMS. For more about Dashr click the link above.
PlayerData
🌎Site:https://www.playerdata.com/en-us
PlayerData is Strength Coach Network’s trusted GPS provider and a FIFA Quality–certified system, used by coaches at every level to quantify training load and understand movement demands. PlayerData delivers reliable, actionable data at a strong value point, with seamless syncing that saves coaches precious time—so the focus stays on coaching, not managing technology. For more about PlayerData click the link above.
What could the STRONG Act actually mean for strength and conditioning coaches?
Rachel Newman, Marketing Manager for Customers and Community at TeamBuildr, joins Justin to break down why strength and conditioning needs its own SOC designation, what that could mean for salary and employment data, funding for personnel and professional development, and why coaches need to continue supporting the STRONG Act.
They also discuss why the profession needs to unite around the title Strength and Conditioning Coach, how better federal data could help coaches understand career opportunities and compensation, and why this is a long-term investment in the profession.
Most importantly, they don't just talk about supporting the STRONG Act — Justin calls his representative live during the episode. It takes about 70 seconds. If strength coaches want better recognition, better data and a stronger profession, we have to be willing to speak up.
___
CONNECT WITH US:
🌎Site: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/
📝Blog: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/blog/
___
From our sponsors:
Hawkin Dynamics
🌎Site: https://www.hawkindynamics.com/
Hawkin Dynamics is the world leader in force plate solutions. Wireless hardware, intuitive software,
and powerful analysis make Hawkin Dynamics the best choice for any coach or trainer. Make sure you check them out in the link above.
Power Lift
🌎Site: https://www.powerliftusa.com/
Power Lift is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of American-made strength and conditioning equipment. They understand that your Brand is important and offer several diverse ways to incorporate that Brand into your strength equipment. For more about Power Lift click the link above.
Dashr
🌎Site: https://www.dashrsystems.com/
Dashr is a performance testing company best known for its laser timing, but also integrates with Teambuildr and offers a free Player Profile app used by 6k+ athletes. Beyond timing, they provide a full suite of testing solutions including verticals, broad jumps, RSI, biometrics, reaction, and AMS. For more about Dashr click the link above.
PlayerData
🌎Site:https://www.playerdata.com/en-us
PlayerData is Strength Coach Network’s trusted GPS provider and a FIFA Quality–certified system, used by coaches at every level to quantify training load and understand movement demands. PlayerData delivers reliable, actionable data at a strong value point, with seamless syncing that saves coaches precious time—so the focus stays on coaching, not managing technology. For more about PlayerData click the link above.
Mike Woicik is one of the most accomplished strength and conditioning coaches in NFL history. Across 30 years in the league, he won six Super Bowl championships — three with the Dallas Cowboys and three with the New England Patriots — after beginning his career at Springfield College and Syracuse.
Mike joins Justin to look back at the evolution of strength and conditioning through a career that spanned multiple eras of the profession. They discuss the influence of Soviet training methods, Boyd Epley’s impact on Mike early in his career, bringing a college-style development program into the NFL, position-specific conditioning, speed and power development, single-leg training, in-season strength, testing, technology, and return-to-play.
They also discuss what Mike believes the role of a strength coach should actually be. After decades working behind the scenes with some of football’s greatest teams and players, his philosophy remains simple: the job is about helping the athletes — not making the strength coach the center of attention.
___
CONNECT WITH US:
🌎Site: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/
___
From our sponsors:
Hawkin Dynamics
🌎Site: https://www.hawkindynamics.com/
Hawkin Dynamics is the world leader in force plate solutions. Wireless hardware, intuitive software,
and powerful analysis make Hawkin Dynamics the best choice for any coach or trainer. Make sure you check them out in the link above.
Power Lift
🌎Site: https://www.powerliftusa.com/
Power Lift is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of American-made strength and conditioning equipment. They understand that your Brand is important and offer several diverse ways to incorporate that Brand into your strength equipment. For more about Power Lift click the link above.
Dashr
🌎Site: https://www.dashrsystems.com/
Dashr is a performance testing company best known for its laser timing, but also integrates with Teambuildr and offers a free Player Profile app used by 6k+ athletes. Beyond timing, they provide a full suite of testing solutions including verticals, broad jumps, RSI, biometrics, reaction, and AMS. For more about Dashr click the link above.
PlayerData
🌎Site:https://www.playerdata.com/en-us
PlayerData is Strength Coach Network’s trusted GPS provider and a FIFA Quality–certified system, used by coaches at every level to quantify training load and understand movement demands. PlayerData delivers reliable, actionable data at a strong value point, with seamless syncing that saves coaches precious time—so the focus stays on coaching, not managing technology. For more about PlayerData click the link above.
In this episode of Supertraining in a Year, Justin and Yosef break down pages 466–480 and explore the relationship between pain, injury, and training. They discuss why pain doesn’t always reflect the severity of an injury, how microtrauma can accumulate over time, and why preparing athletes for imperfect and unexpected positions may be an important part of building robustness.
As always, this podcast is commentary on Supertraining—not a replacement for reading the book.
___
Buy Supertraining to Read Along with Us - use code STRONGER20 to save 20%
https://uaconcepts.com/product/supertraining
___
CONNECT:
🌎Site: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/
📝Blog: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/blog/
___
From our sponsors:
Hawkin Dynamics
🌎Site: https://www.hawkindynamics.com/
Hawkin Dynamics is the world leader in force plate solutions. Wireless hardware, intuitive software,
and powerful analysis make Hawkin Dynamics the best choice for any coach or trainer. Make sure you check them out in the link above.
Power Lift
🌎Site: https://www.powerliftusa.com/
Power Lift is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of American-made strength and conditioning equipment. They understand that your Brand is important and offer several diverse ways to incorporate that Brand into your strength equipment. For more about Power Lift click the link above.
Dashr
🌎Site: https://www.dashrsystems.com/
Dashr is a performance testing company best known for its laser timing, but also integrates with Teambuildr and offers a free Player Profile app used by 6k+ athletes. Beyond timing, they provide a full suite of testing solutions including verticals, broad jumps, RSI, biometrics, reaction, and AMS. For more about Dashr click the link above.
PlayerData
🌎Site:https://www.playerdata.com/en-us
PlayerData is Strength Coach Network’s trusted GPS provider and a FIFA Quality–certified system, used by coaches at every level to quantify training load and understand movement demands. PlayerData delivers reliable, actionable data at a strong value point, with seamless syncing that saves coaches precious time—so the focus stays on coaching, not managing technology. For more about PlayerData click the link above.
Thorne
🌎Site: https://www.thorne.com/
Thorne is a global leader in high-quality nutritional supplements and health testing. Trusted by professional sports teams, the U.S. military, and practitioners around the world, Thorne is known for rigorous ingredient sourcing, third-party testing, and science-backed formulations. Whether supporting performance, recovery, or overall health, Thorne provides products coaches and athletes can trust. For more about Thorne click the link above.
Dr. Chad Herring is a Human Performance Specialist and Lead Strength & Conditioning Specialist supporting the United States Special Operations Command through KBR. His work focuses on integrating strength and conditioning, sport science, recovery, and performance analytics to enhance warfighter readiness and resilience.
Prior to USSOCOM, Herring served as Director of Sport Science for football at Florida Atlantic University and held leadership roles in both private-sector performance and AI-driven training technology. He earned his PhD in Exercise Physiology from the University of Central Florida and has coached across collegiate athletics, professional baseball, and tactical performance settings
$1 Trial Membership to SCN
🏫CEUs: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/Trial
Save on your re-certification to the NSCA and CSCCa with best price CEUs
🏫CEUs: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/CEU
From our sponsors:
Hawkin Dynamics
🌎Site: https://www.hawkindynamics.com/
Hawkin Dynamics is the world leader in force plate solutions. Wireless hardware, intuitive software, and powerful analysis make Hawkin Dynamics the best choice for any coach or trainer.
Power Lift
🌎Site: https://www.powerliftusa.com/
Power Lift is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of American-made strength and conditioning equipment. They understand that your Brand is important and offer several diverse ways to incorporate that Brand into your strength equipment.
Dashr
🌎Site: https://www.dashrsystems.com/
Dashr is a performance testing company best known for its laser timing, but also integrates with Teambuildr and offers a free Player Profile app used by 6k+ athletes. Beyond timing, they provide a full suite of testing solutions including verticals, broad jumps, RSI, biometrics, reaction, and AMS.
PlayerData
🌎Site:https://www.playerdata.com/en-us
PlayerData is Strength Coach Network’s trusted GPS provider and a FIFA Quality–certified system, used by coaches at every level to quantify training load and understand movement demands. PlayerData delivers reliable, actionable data at a strong value point, with seamless syncing that saves coaches precious time—so the focus stays on coaching, not managing technology.
TeamBuildr
🌎Site:https://www.teambuildr.com/en
TeamBuildr is a platform for any coach in any setting. Every day, thousands of coaches log into TeamBuildr to write training programs, build questionnaires and access athlete training in a simple and manageable way.
Thorne
🌎Site: https://www.thorne.com/
Thorne is a global leader in high-quality nutritional supplements and health testing. Trusted by professional sports teams, the U.S. military, and practitioners around the world, Thorne is known for rigorous ingredient sourcing, third-party testing, and science-backed formulations. Whether supporting performance, recovery, or overall health, Thorne provides products coaches and athletes can trust.
Are your athletes actually recovered — or do they just feel recovered?
In this episode of Supertraining in a Year, Justin Lima and Yosef Johnson work through pages 451–465 of Supertraining, focusing on restoration, recovery, testing, and how coaches can actually apply these concepts.
The bigger question throughout the episode: Are we using recovery and testing with a specific purpose, or are we just doing things because that's what everyone else does?
___
Buy Supertraining to Read Along with Us - use code STRONGER20 to save 20%
https://uaconcepts.com/product/supertraining
___
CONNECT:
🌎Site: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/
📝Blog: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/blog/
___
From our sponsors:
Hawkin Dynamics
🌎Site: https://www.hawkindynamics.com/
Hawkin Dynamics is the world leader in force plate solutions. Wireless hardware, intuitive software,
and powerful analysis make Hawkin Dynamics the best choice for any coach or trainer. Make sure you check them out in the link above.
Power Lift
🌎Site: https://www.powerliftusa.com/
Power Lift is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of American-made strength and conditioning equipment. They understand that your Brand is important and offer several diverse ways to incorporate that Brand into your strength equipment. For more about Power Lift click the link above.
Dashr
🌎Site: https://www.dashrsystems.com/
Dashr is a performance testing company best known for its laser timing, but also integrates with Teambuildr and offers a free Player Profile app used by 6k+ athletes. Beyond timing, they provide a full suite of testing solutions including verticals, broad jumps, RSI, biometrics, reaction, and AMS. For more about Dashr click the link above.
PlayerData
🌎Site:https://www.playerdata.com/en-us
PlayerData is Strength Coach Network’s trusted GPS provider and a FIFA Quality–certified system, used by coaches at every level to quantify training load and understand movement demands. PlayerData delivers reliable, actionable data at a strong value point, with seamless syncing that saves coaches precious time—so the focus stays on coaching, not managing technology. For more about PlayerData click the link above.
Thorne
🌎Site: https://www.thorne.com/
Thorne is a global leader in high-quality nutritional supplements and health testing. Trusted by professional sports teams, the U.S. military, and practitioners around the world, Thorne is known for rigorous ingredient sourcing, third-party testing, and science-backed formulations. Whether supporting performance, recovery, or overall health, Thorne provides products coaches and athletes can trust. For more about Thorne click the link above.
Stephanie Mock Grubbs joins the Cheeky Mid Weeky to discuss leadership, career development, building performance systems, and her journey from collegiate strength and conditioning into professional baseball.
Stephanie shares lessons from her time at Clemson, Mississippi State, and Pitt, including preparing for leadership before getting the title, developing staff, creating systems that last, and why working across multiple sports helped build the toolbox she uses today.
We also dive into her work in professional baseball, including navigating the 162-game schedule, training different player groups, managing travel and accumulated stress, working with veteran athletes, and continuing to evolve as a performance professional.
___
CONNECT WITH US:
🌎Site: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/
___
From our sponsors:
Hawkin Dynamics
🌎Site: https://www.hawkindynamics.com/
Hawkin Dynamics is the world leader in force plate solutions. Wireless hardware, intuitive software,
and powerful analysis make Hawkin Dynamics the best choice for any coach or trainer. Make sure you check them out in the link above.
Power Lift
🌎Site: https://www.powerliftusa.com/
Power Lift is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of American-made strength and conditioning equipment. They understand that your Brand is important and offer several diverse ways to incorporate that Brand into your strength equipment. For more about Power Lift click the link above.
Dashr
🌎Site: https://www.dashrsystems.com/
Dashr is a performance testing company best known for its laser timing, but also integrates with Teambuildr and offers a free Player Profile app used by 6k+ athletes. Beyond timing, they provide a full suite of testing solutions including verticals, broad jumps, RSI, biometrics, reaction, and AMS. For more about Dashr click the link above.
PlayerData
🌎Site:https://www.playerdata.com/en-us
PlayerData is Strength Coach Network’s trusted GPS provider and a FIFA Quality–certified system, used by coaches at every level to quantify training load and understand movement demands. PlayerData delivers reliable, actionable data at a strong value point, with seamless syncing that saves coaches precious time—so the focus stays on coaching, not managing technology. For more about PlayerData click the link above.
Thorne
🌎Site: https://www.thorne.com/
Thorne is a global leader in high-quality nutritional supplements and health testing. Trusted by professional sports teams, the U.S. military, and practitioners around the world, Thorne is known for rigorous ingredient sourcing, third-party testing, and science-backed formulations. Whether supporting performance, recovery, or overall health, Thorne provides products coaches and athletes can trust. For more about Thorne click the link above.
Tommie Dorsey III, CSCS, M.A. is a Tactical Strength and Conditioning Coach with Serco in Hawaii and the Head Strength Coach for football at Kahuku High School. His coaching experience spans tactical, collegiate, private-sector, and high school performance settings, with a focus on long-term athlete development, movement quality, and evidence-based training.
Prior to his current roles, Dorsey worked in strength and conditioning at Northern Arizona University and St. John's University, coaching athletes across a variety of sports. He earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Northern Arizona University and has a strong interest in sport science, athlete monitoring, and performance data to support sustainable athletic development.
$1 Trial Membership to SCN
🏫CEUs: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/Trial
Save on your re-certification to the NSCA and CSCCa with best price CEUs
🏫CEUs: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/CEU
Hawkin Dynamics
🌎Site: https://www.hawkindynamics.com/
Hawkin Dynamics is the world leader in force plate solutions. Wireless hardware, intuitive software, and powerful analysis make Hawkin Dynamics the best choice for any coach or trainer.
Power Lift
🌎Site: https://www.powerliftusa.com/
Power Lift is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of American-made strength and conditioning equipment. They understand that your Brand is important and offer several diverse ways to incorporate that Brand into your strength equipment.
Dashr
🌎Site: https://www.dashrsystems.com/
Dashr is a performance testing company best known for its laser timing, but also integrates with Teambuildr and offers a free Player Profile app used by 6k+ athletes. Beyond timing, they provide a full suite of testing solutions including verticals, broad jumps, RSI, biometrics, reaction, and AMS.
PlayerData
🌎Site:https://www.playerdata.com/en-us
PlayerData is Strength Coach Network’s trusted GPS provider and a FIFA Quality–certified system, used by coaches at every level to quantify training load and understand movement demands. PlayerData delivers reliable, actionable data at a strong value point, with seamless syncing that saves coaches precious time—so the focus stays on coaching, not managing technology.
TeamBuildr
🌎Site:https://www.teambuildr.com/en
TeamBuildr is a platform for any coach in any setting. Every day, thousands of coaches log into TeamBuildr to write training programs, build questionnaires and access athlete training in a simple and manageable way.
Thorne
🌎Site: https://www.thorne.com/
Thorne is a global leader in high-quality nutritional supplements and health testing. Trusted by professional sports teams, the U.S. military, and practitioners around the world, Thorne is known for rigorous ingredient sourcing, third-party testing, and science-backed formulations. Whether supporting performance, recovery, or overall health, Thorne provides products coaches and athletes can trust. For more about Thorne click the link above.
In this episode of Supertraining in a Year, Justin Lima and Yosef Johnson cover pages 441–450 and dive into overtraining, recovery, and restoration — including the difference between general and local overtraining and why youth sport volume can create recovery problems that extend far beyond the weight room.
They discuss why athletes don't always need to be fully recovered, how restoration should be periodized alongside training, and why repeatedly using the same recovery methods can become less effective. The conversation also explores how Soviet coaches approached massage, active recovery, psychological restoration, and other methods decades before many became popular today.
Plus, Yosef explains why sleep remains the most important recovery tool available and why coaches need to help athletes become more self-aware instead of automatically reaching for another recovery modality.
___
Buy Supertraining to Read Along with Us - use code STRONGER20 to save 20%
https://uaconcepts.com/product/supertraining
___
CONNECT:
🌎Site: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/
📝Blog: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/blog/
___
From our sponsors:
Hawkin Dynamics
🌎Site: https://www.hawkindynamics.com/
Hawkin Dynamics is the world leader in force plate solutions. Wireless hardware, intuitive software,
and powerful analysis make Hawkin Dynamics the best choice for any coach or trainer. Make sure you check them out in the link above.
Power Lift
🌎Site: https://www.powerliftusa.com/
Power Lift is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of American-made strength and conditioning equipment. They understand that your Brand is important and offer several diverse ways to incorporate that Brand into your strength equipment. For more about Power Lift click the link above.
Dashr
🌎Site: https://www.dashrsystems.com/
Dashr is a performance testing company best known for its laser timing, but also integrates with Teambuildr and offers a free Player Profile app used by 6k+ athletes. Beyond timing, they provide a full suite of testing solutions including verticals, broad jumps, RSI, biometrics, reaction, and AMS. For more about Dashr click the link above.
PlayerData
🌎Site:https://www.playerdata.com/en-us
PlayerData is Strength Coach Network’s trusted GPS provider and a FIFA Quality–certified system, used by coaches at every level to quantify training load and understand movement demands. PlayerData delivers reliable, actionable data at a strong value point, with seamless syncing that saves coaches precious time—so the focus stays on coaching, not managing technology. For more about PlayerData click the link above.
Kevin Maxen, Director of Sports Performance and Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Tufts University, joins Justin Lima on the Cheeky Mid Weeky.
Before arriving at Tufts, Maxen spent four years with the Jacksonville Jaguars and made stops at Vanderbilt, Baylor, Iowa, Army West Point, the private sector, and high school strength and conditioning.
Kevin and Justin discuss what it actually means to be a strength coach, lessons learned from Coach Chris Doyle, moving away from the stereotypical “old-school” strength coach, work-life integration, developing young coaches, and why the profession needs to take itself more seriously.
They also dive into the practical challenges of overseeing nearly 950 athletes at Tufts, building trust within a staff, creating systems that can scale, giving coaches autonomy, and adapting training to the individual rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
___
CONNECT WITH US:
🌎Site: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/
___
From our sponsors:
Hawkin Dynamics
🌎Site: https://www.hawkindynamics.com/
Hawkin Dynamics is the world leader in force plate solutions. Wireless hardware, intuitive software,
and powerful analysis make Hawkin Dynamics the best choice for any coach or trainer. Make sure you check them out in the link above.
Power Lift
🌎Site: https://www.powerliftusa.com/
Power Lift is an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of American-made strength and conditioning equipment. They understand that your Brand is important and offer several diverse ways to incorporate that Brand into your strength equipment. For more about Power Lift click the link above.
Dashr
🌎Site: https://www.dashrsystems.com/
Dashr is a performance testing company best known for its laser timing, but also integrates with Teambuildr and offers a free Player Profile app used by 6k+ athletes. Beyond timing, they provide a full suite of testing solutions including verticals, broad jumps, RSI, biometrics, reaction, and AMS. For more about Dashr click the link above.
PlayerData
🌎Site:https://www.playerdata.com/en-us
PlayerData is Strength Coach Network’s trusted GPS provider and a FIFA Quality–certified system, used by coaches at every level to quantify training load and understand movement demands. PlayerData delivers reliable, actionable data at a strong value point, with seamless syncing that saves coaches precious time—so the focus stays on coaching, not managing technology. For more about PlayerData click the link above.
Thorne
🌎Site: https://www.thorne.com/
Thorne is a global leader in high-quality nutritional supplements and health testing. Trusted by professional sports teams, the U.S. military, and practitioners around the world, Thorne is known for rigorous ingredient sourcing, third-party testing, and science-backed formulations. Whether supporting performance, recovery, or overall health, Thorne provides products coaches and athletes can trust. For more about Thorne click the link above.
From the publisher's feed
Cheeky Mid Weeky is the podcast from Strength Coach Network, where strength coaches continue their education.
Hosted by Dr. Justin Lima, the show brings you conversations with strength and…
Each week, we dig into training, programming, sport science, leadership, career development, and the lessons learned from actually doing the job. Different coaches have different experiences, philosophies, and ways of solving problems — and that is exactly what makes the profession worth talking about.
Dr. Lima has worked in strength and conditioning since 2009, including stops in the Big Ten, ACC, Ivy League, and private sector. Today, he serves as President and CEO of Strength Coach Network, a CEU-approved education platform serving strength coaches around the world.
Real coaches. Real conversations. Education you can take back to the weight room.
New episodes of Cheeky Mid Weeky drop every Wednesday.
For more information from Strength Coach Network follow us at:
Website: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/
Blog: https://strengthcoachnetwork.com/blog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strength_coach_network/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StrengthCoachNetwork
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strengthcoachnetwork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StrCoachNetwork

227,519 Listeners

239 Listeners

371 Listeners

430 Listeners

7,997 Listeners

43 Listeners

46,129 Listeners

29,187 Listeners

5 Listeners