On this episode of The TOP Strength Cast, Jenny and I sat down w Dave: a Marine, competitive Strongman/ Powerlifter, owner of Strength Discovery, a friend to me and supporter of everything TOP Strength Project. Over the last year, Dave has been transitioning into his female form: Daviana.

It’s no secret that the entire transgender movement is one of the most divisive topics in today’s culture and political space. Just like anyone else, I have my own opinions and thoughts as to why that is. I was excited when Daviana asked to come on the podcast and communicate his story, experiences, and perspectives along his journey presenting as a female.

I encourage all of you to listen. I really enjoyed this conversation.

Thanks guys!

Strength Discovery/Daviana⁠

⁠Top Strength Project ⁠

⁠Steve Tripp

Show Notes

0:15 Introducing Daviana/ Dave

1:28 From the top

2:40 How Jenny lost her finger

7:55 “En Vogue”

9:40 Starting to go into public

12:00 Transitioning and the politization of it

15:50 The first post

16:40 “you’re still a man”

20:00 Conflating transgenderism w homosexuality

24:50 Criticisms of DEI

28:02 Transgender Health/ Gender Affirming Care

29:30 Covid

36:20 Dave’s experience in the Marine’s

37:40 Impact of technology on culture/ “reality”

41:30 Bathrooms

47:40 “How is it with your Daughter?”

58:30 Voice Therapy

1:05:00 Other Trans-Related-Issues

1:20:45 Dave or Daviana?

1:23:00 Is Dave cutting his d*ck off?!

1:28:35 How his divorce has impacted him as a parent

1:31:00 “is he less of a dick?”

1:35:00 How do you deal with bullying

1:41:30 Dave’s relationship with his siblings since transitioning

1:45:30 What’s next for you

1:49:15 How do you feel on exogenous estrogen vs testosterone

1:54:20 Bottom Surgery

1:56:30 Male vs Female sexual experience

1:59:29 Relationship dynamics

2:11:15 Trysexual

2:14:00 More thoughts on polarization

Chandler and I connected first on IG after coming across a post of his that went viral: “Strong, Shredded, or Natty? Pick two.” We ended up exchanging some DM’s and I asked him on a podcast date; so here it is. Turns out he and I had a ton in common. Competitive powerlifter/ strength athlete, coach, and owner of @BackyardBarbell out in San Jose, California. Chandler and I share a lot of perspectives. We went for close to 3 hours and chose to cut it there because we could have went for another three.

Looking forward to connecting w Chandler in the near future.

Chandler Parsons

Top Strength Project 

Steve Tripp

0:00 Our first date…

0:12 “Natty, Strong, Shredded, Pick 2”

0:50 Pros and Cons of Social Media

2:30 Balls to Brain Ratio

4:10 Meritocracy, you had to earn it

5:00 The control of information

5:50 “Trauma” and strength sports

7:45 “the problem with tattoos becoming popular is that people who should have never

gotten tattooed are getting tattooed…”

9:50 importance of voluntary suffering and community

15:50 Experience w Therapy

17:00 Strength Sports as a Vehicle to Create Direction and Focus

25:50 Training is Honest

27:00 “everything I do, I’m going to do it all the way…”

31:10 King of the Clown Show

34:30 Choosing to Learn from Mistakes and Failures

39:00 Happiness is found in the journey, not the destination

40:50 “a mistake is a mistake only if you didn’t learn anything from it…”

42:40 Not Pitting Time Frames on Reaching Goals

49:25 Aggressive Patience

50:20 “if you could wake up with a 1,000 pound squat, would you?”

53:00 Totaling over 2,000

55:00 PED’s

1:08:00 Equipment Zealots

1:20:00 Backyard Barbell

1:24:00 TOP Strength

1:29:00 How I got involved in Strength Sports

1:33:30 Ironbuild Games

1:34:00 The importance of being a part of something bigger than ourselves…

1:38:20 Focusing providing the best possible service over profits

1:44:00 Jenny and our Group Program

1:56:00 Strongman Circuit

2:04:00 Powerlifting to Strongman

2:11:40 Tom Haviland/ Josh Bryant

2:16:30 … the greatest limitation is believing you have them.”

2:18:00 Ocean State Crossfit

2:21:00 Using Variations in training to address chronic overuse injuries

2:36:00 Where to find Chandler and Backyard Barbell.

On this episode of The TOPStrenghCast, I got to sit down with my coach and the man behind @MSTsystems, Shane Jerman. After putting on a great shoulder stab (stability)

seminar @thetopstrengthproject, we got on the mic and spoke about what was covered in the seminar, the importance of and how to apply context when building programs for

different athletes, rehab, movement prep, and Shane’s personal journey first joining a gym to improve his kickboxing before being introduced to strongman.

He immediately became enamored by all things strongman, learning everything he could while connecting with the other top athletes in Europe. This eventually led to the

start of MST, and the rest is history. Similar to the seminar, there is a ton of valuable take away concepts and lessons in this episode; so, ENJOY!

Thanks guys.

Shane Jerman

Top Strength Project 

Steve Tripp

0:00 Intro

0:40 Overhead/ Circus DB Seminar

2:40 Shoulder STAB (Stability)

8:12 “When I’m done coaching, I’d like to leave some sort of mark on the sport…”

9:00 Approaching Accessories in Training for Strength Athletes

12:02 Training Age/ Impacts on Exercise Selection

14:00 Overuse Injuries/ Understanding Neurological Impacts

20:00 Scalable Rehab: Using Load to Make Postural/ Positional Adaptations Stick

24:30 “Gas Station Ready” (Movement Prep/ Warm-Ups)

30:30 Introduction to Tri-Phasic

32:50 Aspects of the Neurological System

42:45 “You’ve almost got to earn your sends.”

43:12 “Did you get older, or did you get better?

44:00 “I think Lucy’s World’s Strongest Woman”

47:34 “I didn’t want to complete in strongman coz I felt like I was too good for it”

53:30 “Can’t eat my means bro so I’m off”

56:00 Graham Hicks “…let’s bring him down and do some YOKE.”

58:20 James Ward

1:00:47 Squats in Strongman

1:03:56 Coaching

1:05:19 Andrew Triana

1:07:46 MST

1:12:15 MST goes into the open

1:14:33 Imposter Syndrome

1:16:16 I’m Super Competitive

1:18:30 “…. something’s brewing… I’m bored”

1:21:10 When to Send

1:22:14 “That’s how it works, mate”

1:24:15 Training Helps

1:27:42 What’s Next?

1:34:20 Closing/ MST Systems App

On this episode with the Swede and Sin, we talk about Swede’s first exposure to weight training, body building, and eventually the creation of 5 th Set. It didn’t take long for the

conversation to shift more towards mindset, culture, impacts of media and social media, and how Swede and Sin both leverage their values while navigating through life

experiences. I really enjoyed this conversation. Hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed having it.

Thanks guys!

Swede

Top Strength Project 

Steve Tripp

0:00 Intro and Swede’s Origins

1:00 Hulk Hogan Weight Set

1:30 10 Sets of 10… of Everything

6:00 Swede Meet’s Jim Davis

9:15 Experimenting w Bench Shirts

9:50 “It’s Called Raw”

11:20 Miss Jordan

14:00 Finding Value in our Failures

19:50 “Being an Active Participant Rather Than a Victim”

21:30 Starts Coaching

24:00 The Battle w Brian Page

28:45 “Turns out I hate losing much more than I love winning…”

32:00 The type that responds to positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement

39:45 What got Sin started

45:00 Writing 5 th Set

45:45 Prison is the only place where you have legitimate control for experiments on

human beings”

46:20 Training through Covid

47:55 Assimilating back into society after “time away”

49:49 “What the FUCK is an iPod?!”

53:05 “You can draw a through line from that to everything good”

59:19 “a degree of difference over a lifetime is an entirely different end game”

1:03:00 Are you playing an active role in your life or are you a victim

1:04:24 Voluntary Suffering/ Mile Marker Goals

1:09:30 Short Term Goals/ Long Term Goals

1:13:50 “the universe always provided me with what I needed….. not what I want”

1:20:00 Developing Values

1:22:30 Repentance

1:25:30 the line between good an evil goes directly through the middle of every man’s

heart

1:30:00 Pride

1:34:25 Passion

1:40:35 The Coddling of the American Mind

1:44:00 Polarized Society

2:01:00 Closing

This episode I had the opportunity to talk with Eric Dawson: Owner of Titan Barbell, mentor, coach, husband, father, and role model to many. Eric is extremely well spoken and I really enjoyed this conversation. As it turns out, he and I share very similar backgrounds: both high-school and college athletes, grew up working multiple trade/ labor jobs, and both ended up training in a corporate gym setting not because it was something we necessarily planned to do, but needed where our previous jobs were no longer feasible. After spending the first half an hour discussing that process, we talk about getting involved in Strength Sports, again, both at 27. In Eric’s case, getting involved in competing is what led to him starting Titan out of his garage and eventually expanding to their current location in Stoneham.

Help Create a Positive Environment for Each other

Help Create the Space that You Would Want to Lift In

Clean Up After Yourself

How we came to opening our own private training facilities and eventually expanding into full-service fitness centers.

Titan Barbell

Eric Dawson

Top Strength Project 

Steve Tripp

Eric Dawson Episode Notes

0:00 Introduction and Eric’s Athletic Background

3:30 Introduction to Strength Training and Working Labor Jobs

4:30 Value in Labor

6:14 “Nothing that I do in a physical day (today) is going to match what I did growing

up…”

8:00 Training in the Heat vs Cold

8:48 Eric’s “Hot” Pre-Workout (secrets)

9:50 Football and College

11:40 The Original Manhattan Uber Eats

14:30 Getting Started in Coaching/ Personal Training

19:55 “Strength Training Should Not be Used to Substitute your Mental Health”

23:00 Competing in Strength Sports

23:45 How Eric and I Built our Training Businesses: Lifting Heavy Weights

26:00 From Bally’s to TPS

30:00 The Start of Titan Barbell

43:00 Our Shared Vision

45:20 Seeing the Vision Come to Life

48:20 “The Strongest People, Don’t Care Where They Lift”

52:50 Cultivating Culture and Community

58:00 “There’s Nothing Special About My Weights”

1:02:30 Running Competitions

1:04:00 What’s Next for Titan and for Eric as an Athlete

1:07:00 New England Strength Expo

1:12:55 Competing in Strength Sport as Gym Owners

1:14:40 Patience

1:17:00 Changes in Mindset and Training as You Progress as an Athlete

1:23:00 Wood Carving Analogy

1:27:05 Closing

On this episode, I have my second sit down with Ken of Cerberus Strength.

I saw Ken share a post on his social media that he was struggling with his identity. He competed at a high level in strongman for many years. It was a huge part of his life. Eventually, as other aspects of life came into the fray, coupled with injuries that had accumulated from pushing so hard for so long, the fire that once motivated him to train and compete wasn’t there anymore. He and I talk about the valuable lessons we’ve learned over the years of burning the candle at both ends, and sometimes in the middle. The power of reflection, community, purpose, and basically realizing that there’s more to life than just being an athlete. There are also many other ways we can still contribute to the strength community through other endeavors.

Thanks for listening, and Enjoy!

0:47 old men getting back into competitive strongman

2:00 Ken as a strongman

4:30 Weight Class Athletes

6:20 “105kg is the most competitive class in strongman…”

6:50 Strongman’s evolution as a sport

8:55 USS Nationals 2029/ Running shows

18:30 The 2020 Arnold and Covid

19:50 Ken’s Last Show

20:30 Pain and Injury

23:20 Stepping Away from Strongman and into Other Things

27:00 Grieving Process

34:10 The Cow and the Buffalo

35:55 Bravery and Courage

36:45 Trauma

39:40 Why Did you Start Strongman?

47:40 Age and Responsibility

49:15 Training w a Home Set up vs at a Gym

51:35 Developing Systems and Procedures

57:45 Get out of Debt w Strippcam…

1:02:20 Feeling “Lazy”

1:07:50 Finding Fulfillment in “Unenjoyable” or Obligatory Tasks through Effort

1:13:30 Visualization Practices

1:18:45 Managing Stress and Angst When Competing

1:24:20 How a Poor Workout Can Ruin the Rest of Your Day

1:26:20 Recent Adjustments to Training Approach

1:29:45 Understanding Patience

1:39:00 Unintentional Hypocrisy

1:40:20 Ken’s Slight Caffeine Dependency

1:49:00 Ken’s Accountability Post

1:57:00 The Need for Human Interaction

2:01:45 Closing

In this episode I sit down w Trevor Jaffe: competitive strength athlete in strongman and powerlifting with a primary focus in powerlifting. As a coach, Trevor has coached over 29 all-time world records through 8 different athletes and currently holds the masters ATWR total in the 181 class, affectionately known as “the deadlift whisperer.” The day before recording this episode, Trevor put on a great seminar at The TOP Strength Project. I personally saw it as an extremely valuable experience being able to take a ton of valuable strategies that I was able to implement right away. He is an outstanding couch and invaluable resource to anyone in the pursuit of strength. We talk about our own journeys and experience through strength, working with some of the biggest names in the industry, mindset, injuries, training natural vs enhanced, humility, cold exposure…. And dozens of other topics.

GREAT eposide. I hope you guys enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed putting it

together.

Thanks guys!

Trevor Jaffe

Top Strength Project 

Steve Tripp

Trevor Jaffe Show Notes

00:50 Westside Barbell Experience

01:40 Trevor’s Seminar at The TOP Strength Project

02:20 Accumobility Seminar/ Ski Crash

04:30 Old Man Injuries

08:10 Learning as a Coach

13:50 FRONT SQUATS!!!

15:30 Charlie P

17:27 Changing Training Strategies Based on Training Age/ Ability

19:24 24-32 Rule

21:50 Strength Work is Skill Work

23:15 Discipline While Peaking for a Meet

24:45 How I First Became Interested In Powerlifting

27:15 321 Peak

28:10 Neurological Fatigue vs Tissue Fatigue

28:20 Enhanced Athletes Recovery vs Natural

35:48 Trevor’s “Origin Story”

36:00 WTF Happened to Pro Wrestling?!

47:00 Lessons in Humility

51:30 Competing Against Time

53:50 Aggressive Patience

54:15 Strength Athlete Year Round

55:50 Do We Get “Stronger” When We Hit a PR?

57:20 Paying Yourself First

1:01:45 “The Difference Maker isn’t Age, It’s Responsibility”

1:02:50 Tim Ferris’s “Four Hour Work Week”

1:04:40 Cold Exposure

1:07:45 Anabolic Window/ Static Stretching

1:11:20 Working w Hypermobility

1:12:30 The Majority of the Process is Found in the Gray Area

1:14:29 Think About One Thing At a Time

1:15:05 “Sell Them What They Want But Give Them What They Need”

1:19:05 Psychological Associations w Somatotypes?

1:23:30 Comfort Kills Growth

1:26:40 Collaborations with Ocean State Crossfit

1:29:45 Interference Effect Myth

1:33:00 The Ceiling of Training Only Sagittal Plane

1:34:00 Closing

On this episode I sit down w my lady, Jenny, otherwise known as @themusclemom. Similar to other guests we spend the first portion of the episode learning more about Jen’s story. How she originally got involved in athletics as a young girl, from gymnastics, to soccer, to tennis, to group classes, to endurance/ obstacle races, to the barbell, and eventually to competing in both Crossfit and Strongman. She also speaks on her career as a blogger, writer, group x instructor, nutrition coach, personal trainer, and group ex coordinator here at The TOP Strength Project. Her and I then share our similar and emotional perspectives on my most recent strongman competition, 2024 USS Nationals and everything leading up to it. She is an enormous and irreplaceable contributor here at the gym, my biggest supporter, and greatest source of motivation.

Enjoy!

Top Strength Project 

Steve Tripp

Jenny The Muscle Mom

0:50 The “Red Room”

2:00 “How did you get to be so fucking jacked, Jenny?”

2:09 Gymnastics… quitter

4:15 Importance of Intentionally Putting Ourselves in Challenging Situations

5:45 Supportive Parents

7:00 Gymnastics Being the Optimal Introduction to Athleticism

8:30 Jenny Moved to Florida and Discovers Tennis

10:00 Jen’s Fathers Impact on Her Athletically

13:22 Moves Back to RI and Joins a Gym

14:45 Body Image as a Young Teen

17:45 Discovering “the PUMP”

20:20 Gravitating Towards Hard Coaches

21:20 “Class Junky”

25:50 Getting Serious About Lifting After Having Kids

26:45 Obstacle Course Races

32:39 How Did You Stay in Shape During and After Your Pregnancies

34:30 Jenny’s Fitness App

35:00 Training After Pregnancy

41:50 More Weights, More FOOD

42:55 Jen Discovers Strength Training at Next Level Fitness

47:35 Training w Brett

50:50 Olympic Lifting w Mike Campbell

51:19 Training w Orlando

53:40 TOP Strength Invades Next Level

54:00 “Who’s That Guy?”

56:25 THE John Amore

58:55 Our First Interaction by the Dumbbells: “WALTER!!”

1:01:25 Red Flags

1:04:45 TOP Strength Grand Opening

1:07:40 The Squat

1:10:09 Jenny’s First Yoke Run

1:12:00 The Benefits of True Voluntary Suffering

1:17:25 Starting as a Group Instructor and Person Trainer at Enerje

1:21:30 Converting Her Garage to a Home Gym During Covid

1:23:40 Taking Over the Group Program at TOP Strength Project

1:30:00 Truck Pull Event

1:32:00 Jenny Discovers Strongman

1:47:50 USS Nationals… but first…

1:48:15 Car Accident

1:49:45 Arm Injury

1:52:00 2022 USS Nationals

2:01:00 Investing in Coaching and Getting Sick

2:08:30 “Am I Talking Too Much?”

2:11:10 USS Prep Starts

2:12:00 Shane Takes Me Back!!

2:13:15 Being Fortunate to Work with Great Coaches

2:14:30 Dr. Moriarty Fixed My Back, For Now

2:15:50 The Show

2:51:45 What’s Next?

2:32:00 Ironbuilt Games

3:01:15 Jen Commits to Ironbuilt Games… NAHT

In this episode I am joined by the owner and creator of The Vitamin Bar, Shayreen. After learning more about her educational and professional background, we discuss chronic disease, personal responsibility, accountability, eastern and western cultural differences, QUITTERS, big pharma, food, building confidence through competence, personal fulfillment and contentment, as well as Shay’s passions and motivations in becoming a Psych Nurse Practitioner.

Enjoy!!

Top Strength Project 

Steve Tripp

The Vitamin Bar

1:00 Intro

2:00 Education

3:30 Teaching in Palestine

5:15 Upbringing

10:30 Cows and Buffalo’s

17:27 The Need to Maintain Control

18:40 Shay’s Support System

19:00 Practicing as a Nurse/ Chronic Disease

29:20 Sustainable Nutrition Strategies

32:12 Empathy: Everyone has a Story

34:15 Body Image

35:30 Struggles w Binge Eating/ Bulimia

39:40 “Body Positivity Movement”

39:50 Eat Real Food, shitheads

48:20 The Birth of the Vitamin Bar

50:40 Quitters

51:08 Building Confidence through Developing Competence

52:55 People’s Willingness to Help

55:45 Researching IV Hydration

56:45 IV’s vs Drawing Blood

1:04:30 Intro to TOP Strength

1:04:55 Garrett <3

1:08:40 Steve’s First Exposure to IV Hydration

1:12:48 Imposter Syndrome

1:17:50 Do you feel fulfilled?

1:20:35 Shay was dis-satisfied w My Answer

1:21:04 Conversation with a New Member

1:23:29 Steve w a “v” none of that “ph” bullshit

1:23:35 Are you Content?

1:25:38 “I was the WORST on the team”

1:26:00 Steve on Shay’s Couch

1:34:40 Shay on Steve’s Couch

1:37:50 Steve’s Criticisms of Himself as a Trainer

1:42:05 What’s Next for The Vitamin Bar and Path to becoming an NP

1:45:15 Mental and Physical Health

1:45:40 Stutz Documentary/ Life Force

1:49:00 Western vs Easter Cultural Concepts

1:51:35 Why Shay Wants to be a Psych Nurse Practitioner

1:52:45 Understanding Why We Feel the Way We Do

1:57:17 Trauma

1:58:11 Back on Shay’s Couch

Had a great conversation with our own Jon Corcoran and his fiancé Canadian Pro Strongwoman Holly McRae. Had a blast with these two. Both of them gave insight into

their story: athletic background, how and when they found strength sports, along with their own individual journey’s and the valuable lessons learned along the way.

Jon and Holly are both authentic examples of owning their own bullshit, putting it aside to seek solutions and work towards becoming their best selves while having an impact on others along the way. I sincerely enjoyed watching the two of them interact while listening to their individual insights. It’s a special thing for me to experience two people that sincerely have each other’s back and are willing to do whatever it takes to support one another through strength and everything that comes along with it.

Enjoy!!

Top Strength Project 

Steve Tripp

Jon Corcoran

Holly McCrae

1:21:00 Jon’s Gains

1:23:00 Natural Strongman Competitions

1:27:00 Gavin w the WSM hook up! Thanks bro

1:30:00 Running Shows

1:33:00 Long Shows or Short Shows?

1:38:00 Stimulants and Ammonia

1:41:45 Upcoming Shows for Jon

1:47:00 Powerlifting and Strongman

1:54:00 Upcoming Shows for Holly

2:00:00 Upcoming Shows for Steve

2:03:00 Impact of Different Stressors on Training/ Competing

2:06:00 Patience for Longevity in Strongman

2:07:45 Instilling Patience in our Clients

2:10:00 Making Excuses vs Seeking Solutions

2:12:00 Meeting People Where They’re At