Episode 21... BlackJack! He's back! The Jack Attack!

In this week's episode I'm joined by Jack O0sten. Jack is the founder and owner of Jacked&Leen Gym in Rogers, MN. One of the true Mecca's of Bodybuilding in the Midwest... and possibly the world.

Jack has been in the bodybuilding game for over a decade and he and his wife Eileen opened their dream gym in 2024. Together they've been coaching and helping hundreds of clients for the last 5+ years.

Jack is also one of the smartest folks I know in the fitness space. He has the gift, for form, technique and probably most importantly, motivation. You do a set with Jack looking over you and you'll never work harder in your life.

This week Jack joins me to talk all things rep speed and cadence. How fast should you be moving in your workouts? Is there really an ideal tempo? Does anything actually get better or worse if you move faster or slower. Together we answer all of this and much more. You definitely don't want to miss this episode!

If you haven't already please like, subscribe and share. If you're interested in working with me directly for training or health coaching, please reach out at [email protected].

You can also book a free discovery call with myself or another member of my team ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Episode 20... ! They said we couldn't do it... but here we are ah-doing-it!

Today I'm joined by my friend and college Eric Feigl. Eric has been a coach for close to 20 years and trained thousands of client sessions, in person and online. He's currently based out of Ohio at Mission 5 Fitness (HERE) where he takes clients in person, but you can also find him online if you're outside of his area and looking for coaching.

Eric and I spent this episode talking about the current state of the fitness industry. Where it might be in the next 5-10 years, and how to position yourself to continue to be competitive in the fitness space.

Eric is a brilliant guy with a TON of knowledge and experience. Definitely give this episode a listen if you want to know more about the future of fitness!

If you haven't already please like, subscribe and share. If you're interested in working with me directly for training or health coaching, please reach out at [email protected].

You can also book a free discovery call with myself or another member of my team ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Episode 19... that's almost 20! They said we couldn't do it... but here we are ah-doing-it!

Today I'm joined by the king of stats, Dr. James Steele. Dr. Steele is a good friend and colleague, former associate professor at Solent University and currently the head of the research department for Keiser Australia (⁠HERE⁠).

He joins me on the show today to discuss a relatively recent paper he was a major part of called "Machine-based resistance training improves functional capacity in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis." (⁠HERE⁠). This paper is a fantastic Meta-Analysis (combining multiple papers together on the same topic), that looked at the effects of resistance training on machines and how that affected functional capacity measures in older individuals.

Often fitness folks confuse the idea that "functional training" must involve things like, balance, coordination, free weights, bands, and plyometrics. The results from this paper show that simple progressive resistance training using full body resistance machines, improves these results just as much as traditional "functional training". This is great news for older individuals (and younger ones) who want to get stronger and feel better well into their golden years.

You don't have to do any fancy exercises to improve functional capacity. Simply strength train hard, brief, and infrequent. Progress the weights and reps over time, and you've got all the functional training you'll need. As with most things, this applies to older individuals and also... athletes.

If you're interested in hearing more about why exercise doesn't have to be complicated, give this episode a listen!

And if you haven't already please like and subscribe to the podcast. If you'd like to work with me directly or any of my colleagues feel free to schedule a Free Discovery Call ⁠HERE⁠.

Episode 18!!! The king of IG cooking content and hypertrophy gains is back!

In this week's episode I'm joined by Max Coleman, MS. Max is a previous guest on the show and one of the brightest minds in the exercise science space today. He has a fantastic IG account where he break down scientific literature... all well cooking delicious treats!

In this week's episode we talk about the state of the science on a variety of different fronts. Supersets, Optimal Rest Periods, Minimum Effective Dose and more.

Max received his Master's from Lehman College in the Bronx under the tutelage of Dr. Brad Schoenfeld. He'll be part of the inaugural Doctoral Program at Lehman College which is set to launch this Fall. So check him out now, so you can say you knew him before he was Dr. Coleman.

If you haven't already please like, subscribe and share. If you're interested in working with me directly for training or health coaching, please reach out at [email protected].

You can also book a free discovery call with myself or another member of my team ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

17 Episodes and the hits keep coming... now that's what I call "Exercise is Bullshit!"

In this week's episode I'm joined again by previous guest and no nonsense fitness expert Jay Vincent. Jay is a high intensity training specialist who helps men get in the best shape of their lives, faster than they ever though possible. To learn more about his system and coaching visit his website HERE.

This time Jay joins us again to talk about his recent expedition into the field of strength and conditioning. As you've heard me talk about before on this show, S&C coaches are typically glorified powerlifting and olympic lifting coaches. The standards of the NSCA and other credentially organizations are more concerned with history than evidence, and the results is that most S&C programs around the country don't actually do what they claim to do, make better athletes. Instead they teach them skills which we know don't transfer to their sport and in the process, waste valuable time that could have been spent training honing their skills. At their worst, most S&C coaches expose athletes to higher risk for potentially career ending injuries.

Jay has had the priviledge however of working with one of the most well respected and longest tenured S&C coaches in the country, Mike Bradley at Florida State. Coach Bradley has been at the helm of the Men's Basketball program at Florida State for over 2 decades now, quite the feat in college athletics. In a time when coaches turn over almost faster than players in the portal, Coach Bradley has laid a foundation that has continually lead to success at the highest level in the ACC. Most importantly, his players train hard and stay healthy. If they do get injured playing, Coach Bradley's program allows them to rehab and get back in a way most traditional programs simply can't.

Jay was invited to be a guest coach a few months back and in today's episode we discuss his experience. What he's learned from the legendary coach, and what makes Florida States Basketball program so unique in the world of both college and professional athletics. You definitely don't want to miss the insight and wisdom shared in this episode. If you've ever wondered what college athletics strength and conditioning at the highest level SHOULD look like, this is the episode for you!

If you haven't already please like, subscribe and share. If you're interested in working with me directly for training or health coaching, please reach out at [email protected].

You can also book a free discovery call with myself or another member of my team ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Episode 16... another Doctor! And a Candadian! A double whammy of awesome!

Dr. Sara Oikawa is the Chief Science officer for Enhanced Medical Nutrition (HERE). They specialize in pre and post surgery nutrition interventions for patients who want to maximize their readiness going into surgery and prepare to be at their best following surgery.

Their flagship product EnRoute is a patented blend of protein and nutrients that has been clinically shown to not just maintian lean tissue, but actually acutely increase lean mass in individuals, even without regimented exercise. It's the ideal solution for someone looking to undergo a surgical procedure that might not be totally prepared through exercise and lifestyle for the high catabolic cost that can come with surgery.

If you or someone you know is having some kind of surgery or plans to potentially have it in the future, talk to your doctor or surgeon about making EMN part of your "pre-hab" routine.

Dr. Oikawa is a brilliant researcher with a Master's and PhD from McMaster University in Hamilton Canada. She studied under the world-renowned Dr. Stu Phillips and before coming to EMN worked for GSSI (Gatorade Sports Science Institute). We talk in this episode about the importance of protein and specifically protein quality. Sara also talks in detail about the importance of movement and exercise and the role they play in longevity.

In all transparency, I have no affiliation with EMN or EnRoute. I am just friends with Sara and when I learned about the product she was representing, I knew there must be something to it. Your risk of death from all causes increases significantly with surgery after the age of 65 (3-fold) in the years following surgery. So anything we can do to mitigate that risk in my book, is a win!

If you haven't already please like, subscribe and share. If you're interested in working with me directly for training or health coaching, please reach out at [email protected].

You can also book a free discovery call with myself or another member of my team ⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Keep an eye out for my book "Exercise Is Bullshit" launching in 2025!

Episode 15 with Big Ticket Bess!

This week I'm joined by my good friend and business mentor Dave Bess. Dave is a renaissance man who does a little bit of everything. He owns a High Intensity training gym in AZ called "Greenlight Personal Training". He also runs a coaching and business mentor company called "PT Legends" which is what my company Reformed Fitness uses for our Health Coaching program. He also... really likes chicken sandwiches.

Dave is a genius at coaching, motivation and helping scale small-medium sized coaching businesses and helping to launch them into the stratosphere. His mentorship has been invaluable to myself and my colleagues and he's completely changed the way we do business.

If you've ever thought about launching a health coaching business of your own, or if you've ever been interested in working with a health coach to improve your own life, I would highly recommend you check out this episode to learn more.

If you haven't already please like, subscribe and share. If you're interested in working with me directly for training or health coaching, please reach out at [email protected].

You can also book a free discovery call with myself or another member of my team ⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Keep an eye out for my book "Exercise Is Bullshit" launching in 2025!

Episode 14... The Doctor's are back!

This episode is great! Unfortunately my sound was not. It's a little echoey but I assure you it's worth your time.

I'm joined this week by the King of Hypertrophy himself, Dr. Brad Schoenfeld. Dr. Schoenfeld is the leading hypertophy (muscle growth) researcher in the world. If you're serious about growing big muscles, you know Dr. Brad. He leads the Lehman College Applied Muscle Development Lab in the Bronx which continues to pump out world class Exercise Scientists. He's been published close to if not more than 300 times and he's not stopping anytime soon.

Lehman is planning on launching it's PhD program this coming fall, and our former guest Max Coleman will be one of the first in line. In this week's episode we discuss some of the most popular topics in the bodybuilding world, like lengthened partials and interset rest periods. Brad does a great job of being "scientific" and not over selling any particular style or technique. But I think you'll find tons of useful information in this episode to incorporate into your current or future training programs.

If you haven't already please like, subscribe and share. If you're interested in working with me directly for training or health coaching, please reach out at [email protected].

You can also book a free discovery call with myself or another member of my team ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Lucky Number 13!

You think you have a cool home gym... you are a pathetic. You think your local gym is cool... it is trash compared to Mike Petrella and STG! Mike has unquestionably the greatest collection of vintage and new exercise equipment on the planet. We took a vote, he won... it's over. Even more... he won't stop adding new stuff! Some might say he's obsessed... I just think he's awesome!

Mike own's STG Stength and Power in Ontario Canada (HERE). He's like most Canadians, super nice, affable and awesome. Last year was mostly doctors... apparently this year is the year of Jacked Canadians. STG is one of the premier strength and conditioning gyms in all of North America and certainly one of the coolest gyms in the whole world. It's still on my bucket list of places to check out.

On this week's episode we talk about different styles of training. Mike has experienced and worked with every type of client imaginable from high level olympic caliber athletes to little old grandmas. There's few people better positioned to talk about different training modalities.

If you're interested in all things fitness, this episode is a must listen.

If you haven't already please like, subscribe and share. If you're interested in working with me directly for training or health coaching, please reach out at [email protected].

You can also book a free discovery call with myself or another member of my team ⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Keep an eye out for my book "Exercise Is Bullshit" launching in 2025!

Episode 12... this is a big one!

Andrew Coates is kind of a big deal, though he probably wouldn't admit it. I met Andrew at a conference back in 2021 and like most Canadians, he seemed to be competing for the "Nicest Guy in The Universe Award". He had a burgeoning IG following and a blossoming career as a fitness writer. He had about 60k followers at the time and shared an awesome presentation on how to grow and build a brand.

Flash forward to 2025 and he is one of the bigger faces in the the industry when it comes to what I would call "People You Can Trust". We don't always see eye to eye on every fitness topic, but he still remains one of the nicest and most humble guys I've ever met. His following is closer to 200K now and he continues to write and speak and share his knowledge. I've learned so much about how to conduct a brand and business just from watching him from afar. He's someone I truly aspire to be like in my business. Not the followers or the engagement, necessarily, but the true genuine person that he is.

Andrew and I have a fascinating discussion today about the future of the onliine and in-person personal training space. What does the future of AI hold for trainers everywhere? How can you position yourself now, to make sure that you are bringing value in what is sure to be a computerized future. Whether you are a recreational exerciser or a fitness pro. I would highly recommend giving this episode a listen and I can't think of a better way to kick off the new year.

If you haven't already please like, subscribe and share. If you're interested in working with me directly for training or health coaching, please reach out at [email protected].

You can also book a free discovery call with myself or another member of my team ⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠.

Keep an eye out for my book "Exercise Is Bullshit" launching in 2025!