Niki and Andrew interview Melissa MacGregor, wife of BLOC coach Mac and BLOC client, and her coach Joel Rasmussen. Melissa suffered a stroke but, with patience, perseverance, and strength training, was able to return to physical activities she never thought she could do again.  Healing Through Strength Training: Perseverance & Experimentation  Melissa saw her husband benefit from strength training and decided to give it a try herself. Joel, her coach, tried many creative ways to help her focus on what she could do. They experimented and pushed into the pain. Pain was feedback that, in her case, was positive because it was a sensation. Joel also had to get creative for new ways to feel her body during lifting, as she did not have the normal sensations and proprioception that others have. Over time, with patience and hard work, she has regained not only the ability to complete certain lifts "normally," but has also been able to return to activities such as biking and skiing, that she never thought she would be able to do again. Listen to this heartwarming and motivating story of patience, perseverance, grit, and healing through strength 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/ 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 podcast@barbell-logic.com 

Don't Abandon Your Body - Beast Over Burden - #527

Join expert voices from Barbell Logic and others from the world of strength for resources to help you get strong for life. Get coaching options and more educational content at barbell-logic.com.

Nutrition

Fitness

Health & Fitness

 Take a sabbath. Take a day of rest, where you refresh. This doesn't necessarily mean you do nothing, but you rest and recharge.  Take a Sabbath! Rest, Recharge, Refresh   If you are like Matt, someone who works long days, enjoys work, and can tend to overdo work and grind yourself away, you need to take a day off. This does not necessarily mean you do nothing. If your job involves mental work, you might do some manual labor and turn off your phone. If you read, you might read fiction. If your job primarily involves manual labor, you might enjoy boardgames, intellectual reading, or other more intellectual pursuits. Similar to how a change in training can help you enjoy training more, a major change to activity can help you recharge. Get outside. Go for a hike. Spend time with family or friends. Slow down. Turn off your phone. Pursue the truly important, not urgent. Take a sabbath.  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 podcast@barbell-logic.com 

Take a Sabbath - Coaching Success - #546

We share our go to healthy recipes. These are tasty, healthy, and enjoyable and help you crush your goals (without suffering).  Go To Healthy Recipes: Consistency, High Protein, Veggies  Before we go on to discuss some of Andrew and Niki's go-to recipes, let's discuss some principles for how the find, make, or purchase these. Find ways to get as high protein as possible (from natural foods). 2:1 protein to fat is good. This tends to mean, looking for lean beef, chicken, eggs, or Greek yogurt (there are, of course, other options, but these are readily available high protein options). Seek ways to strip unnecessary fats out of your diet. Think about things that minimize suffering. Some examples include reducing cooking oils, removing or reducing cheese in salads, replacing high fat dairy with lower fat dairy, and using some egg whites with whole eggs. Eating the same foods consistently is helpful. These meals provide stability. You know how you will feel after them. Unless other big changes have occurred in life, you know how much to cook, it's easy to know your calories and macros, and you know how full you will feel and for how long. Go To Healthy Recipes  Andrew and Niki both like the  Made In Blue Carbon Steel frying pan. It cooks eggs well. Niki loves a high protein and veggie breakfast. She cooks some onions, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, and bok choy. Add some salt (not until the end!) and then some Boar's Head pastrami turkey (about 50 grams). Cook some eggs and back, put all of it in a low carb tortilla and you have a healthy breakfast that is under 400 calories. Andrew will often go to Starbucks. When eating out, look for options that have high protein to calories ratios. Greek yogurt with fruit (fresh or frozen), sugar free jello, and maybe grape nuts is super tasty and high in protein. Whipped cottage cheese is similar. Andrew also has a chicken breast meal with potatoes. Cut the chicken breast in half (to make it thinner). Salt ahead of time (could even salt and leave in the fridge over night). Cook some baby potatoes in the oven (don't salt until the end)! Enjoy. Lastly, a rice hack. Forget about the rice button on your instapot. Rinse the rice, add your water or chicken stock, some salt, and (optional) pat of butter or oil. Cook it for 3 minutes, do NOT have the keep warm function come on afterwards, then immediately start dishing out. These are some of your go to healthy recipes. What are yours?    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 podcast@barbell-logic.com 

Eat With Us! Our Go-To Healthy Recipes - Beast Over Burden - #545

 Swing for the fences! Don't leave anything on the table, give it your best shot, and go full bore ahead.  Swing for the Fences! - Aggressively Pursue the Urgent & Important   A single decision or event can change the course of your life. Regardless of life, philosophy, or religion, this is true. When presented with a big opportunity, you need to swing for the fences. Hyperfocus your life and efforts on this. This is when urgent and important overlap. This is when you put your sleep, family life, and other things on the backburner to aggressively pursue the opportunity. You don't get the outcome if you don't swing for the fences. You don't even get to swing for the fences if you don't swing at all - if you fail to show up.  Swing for the Fences Regardless of the Outcome   This does not mean you succeed. You may fail. You will fail often. Another opportunity will come. Work hard, prepare yourself for those opportunities, and be ready to show up and wing for the fences when the opportunity falls in your lap. Don't leave life with regrets about what you did not seek, what you failed to try. Swing for the fences!   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 podcast@barbell-logic.com 

Swing for the Fences! - Coaching Success - #544

Are more sets better? We dive into a new study and an associated article and headline.  Are More Sets Better? Evidence-Based & Nuanced  We're talking about muscles and hypertrophy today. Outside Magazine recently featured an article that discussed adding more sets for building muscle, which argued that you should add more sets to build muscle. Andrew and Niki are here to be your funnel of truth. Are More Sets Better? Let's Dig Deeper  When we look at scientific studies, it's important to avoid the seemingly easy route of reading a headline or even a news article. If you read the study itself, don't assume that the study title or abstract will match the data necessarily. News media exist to sell their product, and weak headlines don't sell. These incentives exist for scientific magazines and scientists as well - no results or another study confirming what we would expect to find do not dazzle. That being said, studies and scientific literature are not worthless. What Andrew & Niki find is that the headline overstates the findings. Remember, we all have models of how the world works. Ideally, your model has been built according to investigation and astute observation. Studies can and should inform that model, and if a piece of data disagrees with your model you should confront it. That being said, upturning your model because of one study is not recommended. Are more sets better? Maybe, it depends, as adding sets is certainly a tool to use.    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 podcast@barbell-logic.com 

Are More Sets Better? - Evidence Review - Beast Over Burden - #543

 Enjoy the pursuit not the outcome. We are refine by the pursuit, by the difficult process, not the outcome or achievement.  Enjoy the Pursuit Not the Outcome   We find joy in the pursuit of hard things. The process of doing hard things refines us, not the outcomes. Jasen Huang shares how he would not do it again if he could do it again. He did not know how hard it would be but often asks, "How hard can it be?" Andrew Schulz discusses with Joe Rogan how Joe enjoys hard things. You have to come to love the hardship and pursuit it voluntarily. Hardship is coming for you, one way or the other. You can choose it, or it can choose you. If you pursue comfort, hardship will find you. You almost certainly know someone who seeks comfort too much. What does this lead to? Pain, things being taken from you, inability to physically or emotionally do things. Enjoy the pursuit, not the outcome.  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 podcast@barbell-logic.com 

Don't Abandon Your Body - Beast Over Burden - #527

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