South Loop Strength & Conditioning Podcast

That’s right, the SLSC podcast is now Todd Nief’s Show (how arrogant).

Go ahead and point your browsers to www.toddnief.com or point your podcasting apps to one of these locations to stay current with what we’ve got going on:

We’ll be releasing a few episodes per month over at www.toddnief.com.

There’s been a culture war raging for decades – high carbohydrate diets vs high fat diets, paleo diets vs vegan diets, people tracking all of their food in apps while others shout that “calories don’t matter,” and a bunch of people off in the corner sipping exogenous ketones.

If you’re familiar with Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind or the moral foundations theory, it’s no surprise that our morality is easily intertwined with our basic biological urges for food. It’s also no surprise that strong emotions like disgust can mingle with our food choices, causing extreme reactions – people aren’t just failing to achieve optimal results by consuming the “wrong” macronutrients in their diet, they’re degrading their bodies through their impure and improper behavior.

But, how do our bodies actually regulate our weight? How do we regulate our levels of body fatness?

Everyone knows that one guy who is freakishly lean – seemingly no matter what he does for diet or exercise.

Everyone also probably has a cousin who lost a ton of weight on a low carb diet. And then there’s the friend who had great success with paleo. And the other who went vegan and swears it changed his life.

What about hunter gatherer cultures? Kitavans (eating a diet of approximately 70% carbohydrates – predominantly from sweet potatoes) to the Inuit (eating a diet of approximately 50% fat) all seemingly regulate their bodyweight at healthy levels and are free from chronic diseases that plague industrialized cultures.

Is there a thread that ties all of these things together? How can so many seemingly disparate approaches to eating all produce results in both individuals and populations?

There is a “middle way,” so to speak, and Stephan Guyenet has been promoting a framework that makes thinking about bodyweight, body fatness, and appetite all a lot more reasonable.

Stephan has a PhD in neurobiology, and has published research on the role of the brain in regulating body fatness – particularly the role of hypothalamic injury and inflammation.

Stephan has blogged actively for years – first at Whole Health Source, and now at his eponymous site www.stephanguyenet.com. He’s also been a presenter at conferences such as the Ancestral Health Symposium.

Fortunately for the unwashed, unclean masses who have been defiling themselves and their palate through improper eating behavior, Stephan has just released a book called The Hungry Brain that distills the comp

Mark is from Glasgow, Scotland. Mark is the current Scottish and British champion in the 120kg class. He was the IPF European silver medalist last year and is currently the #1 ranked powerlifter in Scotland. Mark has personal bests of a 700lb squat, 407lb bench press, 710lb deadlift, and 1,808lb total as a raw/drug-free athlete. He trains out of Outcast Barbell Sanctuary and works with coach Ben Rice.

Facebook: @markmacqueenpowerlifting

00:29- Catching up and discussing coming back to training after a holiday break. Mark’s 2017 competition season and the end to his junior lifting career.

7:28- Writing your own programming, coaches having a coach, and separating being an athlete and a coach.

19:57- Having a training partner/s and the benefits of enjoying time in the gym.

25:55- The mindset of an athlete might be pretty similar to the mindset of a successful business person. “Not many people want to be a world champion.”

28:55- “The number one thing people should be is, try to be a good person.” Wanting more, and living life on your own terms.

41:28- Not every person we work with as coaches want to be world champions.

50:00- Understanding individual priorities and balancing that within a relationship.

54:28- Strongman, the most entertaining strength sport? A review of last years IPF world championships and what it takes to be champion.

1:00:00- What does it take to be the best of the best? Specific traits from nature, natural gifts and genetics, early life tragedy or trauma? Expression of ones internal motivation through athletics and competition.

1:04- Competition and competing as a job. Game day planning is crucial to success.

1:09- The obsession that drives people can be difficult to understand.

1:13- Screw up at 180%.

1:18- Rags to riches… Conor McGregor.

1:22- What book, blog, podcast, etc has interested you recently?

High schools across America have been pitting nerds against jocks for decades.

I’m not sure if the same dichotomy exists in Germany, or if it’s merely the outgrowth of paragons of American culture like Archie, The Breakfast Club, and Friday Night Lights.

Either way, that distinction between “brains” and “brawn” has never sat well with me. Sure, I can anecdotally think of all kinds of “dumb jocks” and “nerds” hunched over computer keyboards. In coaching beginners to CrossFit, I do often encounter analytical types who have a hard time learning new movements – often due to what I perceive to be excessive self-awareness and intellectualization of movement patterns. It’s really hard to execute a snatch properly when you’re abstractly thinking through every step. So, sometimes the dumb jocks probably do have an advantage in their ability to shut off their pre-frontal cortex and be present with their movement.

Still, I think there’s more overlap between rigorous academic pursuit and training than most people realize. I mean, where else do you get to embark on a multi-year journey of continuous self-improvement involving spending multiple hours on a weekly – or daily – basis suffering for the benefit of some sort of idealized future self?

I recently saw a documentary on the Barkley Marathons called – well – The Barkley Marathons. This film tells the story of a wildly eccentric man and his wildly eccentric race, which consists of three laps through the Tennessee woods that round either up or down – no one is really sure – to 100 miles. Only a handful of people have finished the race over the years, and, of the three who finish in the film, two are graduate students and one is an engineer. While every scientific instinct in me screams “the plural of anecdote is not data,” I’m of the inclination that there are personality types drawn to both physical and mental challenges. It also seems that I’m not the first one to opine on this topic, as Wired just ran an article on this concept as well.

I think there may be some cross-over here with strength sports like weightlifting, CrossFit, and powerlifting as well.

For a case study, we have Stefanie Rulla. Steffi is a state champion powerlifter from Nordreihn Westfalen and PhD candidate at the Center of Advanced European Studies and Research in Bonn.

Check out this interview with Paul and Steffi to learn about getting started with powerlifting, the challenges that females face competing in strength sports, and the neuroscience of the threat response.

I remember Peter Rahal approaching me by the whiteboard at River North CrossFit. If you’ve ever met Peter, he’s kind of a quiet but intense guy. He has a sense of humor, but is also a weird guy with weird ideas, so sometimes you’re not sure if he’s joking or serious.

He comes up to me and says, “Hey, I’m thinking of starting a protein bar company. What do you think?”

I don’t remember what I said, but I know it was something to the effect of, “I don’t know anything about protein bars or the food business, but hopefully you do.”

A few years later, an annoying middle-aged woman in Trader Joe’s who doesn’t know anything about CrossFit or about how to properly check out at the grocery store (Help bag your groceries! Chat pleasantly with the cashier but be ready for when the card swiper is ready to accept your form of payment! Move it along, people!) was talking loudly about how much she “loves these new protein bars” while purchasing a handful of RXBARs.

Looks like Peter was on to something after all. RXBARs quickly spread throughout the CrossFit space and have now made the jump into the mainstream of alternative grocery stores like Trader Joe’s.

But, success on this scale doesn’t just come from having a great idea or a great product – it comes from execution. Scaling any business involves massive challenges in tactical logistics, as well as higher order thinking regarding how to maintain quality, create a culture, and hold employees accountable.

Check out this interview with Peter to learn:

Website: www.rxbar.com

00:22- Intro

Anyone who has ever been to a physical therapist has inevitably been told that they have “weak glutes” and been given Jane Fondas or some other form of band exercise.

Does every human being actually have weak glutes? Is the contractile potential of the muscle limited? Do glutes really not “fire correctly”? Can we actually come up with biomechanical explanations for all of the injuries and issues that we find in athletes?

Dr. Shawn Allen is one half of The Gait Guys along with Dr. Ivo Waerlop – a duo renowned for their information dense podcasts and blog posts in which they dissect the latest research articles in rehab, injuries, nervous system development, and strength training.

Dr. Allen practices not too far from my parents’ house in the suburbs of Chicago, so I made the trek out to see him for some chronic groin issues I’d had from playing soccer. And, it turns out I had some glute issues myself.

However, it’s not as simple as simply contracting the offending muscle group over and over and over again. The pattern in which dysfunction is present must be identified, and then a new pattern must be learned to replace the dysfunctional pattern – which is a higher order way of approaching injuries and movement issues.

Dr. Allen and I have had several interesting conversations about injury mechanisms, the nervous system’s control of movement, and best practices in rehab and training, so we decided to record one of them here.

Website: The Gait Guys, Shawn Allen, and Allen Chiropractic Orthopedics

00:23- Introduction of Dr. Shawn Allen

If you have any interest in the fitness industry – for health, performance, weight loss, or otherwise – you’ve seen some sensational headlines.

“I tried the ketogenic diet and lost 15 pounds in three weeks – all while adding 30 pounds to my one rep max deadlift!”

“My squats had stalled out for years, until I tried this Russian squat program that the Soviets used for their most elite level weightlifters. I was sore for a month, but ended up adding 45 pounds to my one rep max!”

“Personal trainers hate him…”

“I’ve got the number one miracle in a bottle to burn your fat…and it’s raspberry ketones.” Congress even got involved in this one, when they held hearings investigating Dr. Oz’s somewhat unscrupulous claims.

So, what’s a person who wants to burn belly fat or add fifty pounds to their squat to do?

Well, turn to the evidence of course.

Problem is – as anyone who has tried to read the scientific literature – evidence is messy. Evidence is convoluted. Evidence has all kinds of issues like p value hacking (using advanced data mining techniques to find statistically significant correlations in large amounts of data) and the repeatability crisis (a shocking number of studies don’t show the same results when other experimenters attempt to replicate them) – not to mention the challenges of setting up truly randomized, controlled studies when attempting to investigate complicated, mulit-variate, emergent systems that actually affect our health and wellness.

Fortunately, folks like Brandon Heavey and Nicole Latimer are willing and able to spend their time digging through the scientific literature while simultaneously coaching people in the real world, which gives them unique insight into both best practices as supported by evidence, as well as a filter for what actually works with real people in the real world.

I first met Brandon at an OPEX course in Scottsdale – taking Level 2 program design like a bunch of nerds who want to spend all of their time and money learning weird stuff.

A few weeks back, I was at the Ancestral Health Symposium in Boulder, and much to my delight, Brandon and Nicole ended up sitting behind me at one of the first lectures.

They used to own CrossFit 626 in Pasadena, and sold that to move into the mountains outside of Boulder and focus on their individualized coaching in both nutrition and program design. Brandon has an engineering background and Nicole is a pharmacist, so these are folks highly versed in systems thinking and understanding complicated webs of cause and effect.

Take a listen to learn how to filter all the conflicting and confusing information from articles, blogs, and research studies, how to organize that information, and how to figure out what really works in the confusing edges between fitness, nutrition, hormone testing, and human psychology.

Everyone has an opinion on programming and training for CrossFit.

Quibbles over the best ways to train are nothing new in any sport.

Let’s see how many different ways that people can argue over intensity vs volume in training protocols with a few Google searches.

“intensity vs volume CrossFit”

“intensity vs volume bodybuilding”

“intensity vs volume sprinting”

“intensity vs volume triathlon”

With all of these competing opinions out there, what’s a helpless, confused trainee to do?

At this point, most people training competitively for the sport of CrossFit have a coach – often one who either individualizes training for that athlete or who gives them templated training that multiple competitors of comparable skill levels (or many wannabe competitors) follow.

Most people training in CrossFit affiliates participate in group classes with programming designed for an avatar of a specific person – then either modified or scaled to enable each participant to get their training in.

Each of these training methods has trade-offs, and many coaches out there have strong opinions about which method is best. Problem is, most of these people have some sort of business incentive for pushing their favorite version of training – and a healthy dose of confirmation bias backing up their opinions.

On this episode of the SLSC podcast, Paul, Jon and Todd discuss the positives and negatives of different types of training, and also dive into how to truly individualize a training program for an athlete.

And, as it turns out, there is a bit of a business interest and confirmation bias present here as well, as Jon and Todd have an individualized training business called Legion that you can scope out if you’re interested in having a coach filter through all of the competing information out there and guide your training.

Website: www.legionsc.com

00:25- Intro

You’d think that having the most successful food-based Kickstarter campaign of all time would be a great start.

But, Ricky Hirsch was disappointed in having raised only $57,000. He thought his product was so good that he was going to get millions.

Now, there’s something to be said for staying off of the hedonic treadmill and appreciating what you have. But, there’s also something to be said for hustle, pushing your limitations and boundaries, and getting out into the world and making things happen.

After spending some time in the financial industry and running a mortgage company leading into the economic destruction of 2008, Ricky started Think Jerky after playing around with some other ideas involving hot dogs, pastries, and juice (maybe not all at the same time though…)

What does it take to create a business from nothing? Is it just a great idea and endless hustle? From Ricky’s story, it seems that those things are necessary but insufficient.

Website: Think Jerky

00:20-Introduction

I've snuck into a lot of physical therapy continuing education courses that I don't belong in over the last few years. I've enjoyed putting myself in situations where I'm the least knowledgable person in the room, and trying to learn in a field peripheral to strength & conditioning has elevated my thinking as a coach in ways that I would not have anticipated.

I first met Ben at a DNS (Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization) course that he was hosting and assisting with – although I don't think he remembers me from that.

This was my first exposure to a lot of concepts that are a big part of how I train and coach people today like:

I remember feeling helpless and confused in this course as instructors and fellow students would watch someone laying on a table and make quick assessments of their motor control and stabilization strategies.

I was like, "Are these people actually seeing something? Or are they just making it up?"

I can imagine parallels here in terms of watching someone do a snatch at full speed. After a certain number of reference experiences, a coach can immediately see someone rushing their first pull or not getting their knees out of the way as they lift the bar. However, to an untrained observer, every rep probably looks the same. "They're just snatching. Not sure what you're seeing."

Now, not to say that my observational skills are anywhere near that of a trained clinician, but, after taking several more DNS courses, GRIP Approach courses, and getting plenty of reference experiences coaching people and trying to get clients to move better, I think I can sometimes see some of the issues and compensation patterns that were totally indistinguishable to me a few years back when I first met Ben.

Ben has created his own continuing education courses called GRIP Approach (Global Rehabilitation and Injury Prevention), and he is also a practicing chiropractor in Evanston at Cornerstone Clinics.

Through GRIP Approach, Ben takes some of the most effective – yet esoteric – concepts in physical therapy and rehab and makes them practical and accessible to healthcare practitioners, coaches, and trainers.

Ben has a huge wealth of knowledge on all things related to developmental kinesiology, soft tissue and fascial restriction and dysfunction, and the nervous system's role in controlling ranges of motion and compensatory patterns.

Fortunately, rather than just hoarding all of this information for himself, he's synthesizing what he knows and teaching it through GRIP Approach in a way that's one of the most actionable frameworks that I've seen for this type of knowledge.

Take a listen below to hear Ben discuss how he approaches assessment of clients, how he individualizes treatments for different people and different goals, where he personally goes to keep learning, and how he continues developing his craft.

Ben will also be teaching a course at South Loop Strength & Conditioning in July of 2016, so take a look below for more information on Ben's courses as well as his personal practice in Evanston.

*iTunes