Podcast
Barbell Shrugged
Hosted by Barbell Shrugged · EN
New episode every Wednesday! Join the Barbell Shrugged crew in conversations about fitness, training, and frequent interviews w/ CrossFit Games athletes!
41episodes
Episodes
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How to Train Hard Without Breaking Down with Mike Robertson, Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane and Coach Travis Mash #850
6d ago00:55:45Tap to summarizeIn this episode, strength coach, educator, and IFAST co-founder Mike Robertson joins Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash to talk about how serious lifters and athletes can train hard without destroying their bodies in the process. Mike shares his path from early T-Nation contributor to gym owner and longtime coach, explaining how his background in biomechanics shaped the way he evaluates movement, manages athletes, and builds training systems that support long-term performance. The crew also reflects on the early 2000s strength culture, the lessons learned from powerlifting, and why the best athletes often need a coach who can pull them back before ego, pain, or poor recovery catches up with them. The conversation gets into the practical side of staying healthy while still pushing performance: using force plate data and velocity-based training to make better decisions, watching for early signs of breakdown, and creating different exercise "buckets" for days when the body feels great, okay, or beat up. Mike explains why loss of hip internal rotation, lack of movement variability, and constantly chasing load can eventually lead to back, hip, or knee issues, even if the athlete feels fine for years. The team also breaks down how to train around pain and injury, when to adjust instead of quit, and why smart movement, mobility, isometrics, sled work, and lower-stress training days can keep athletes moving forward without digging a deeper recovery hole. Links: Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram
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How We Use Athlete Monitoring to Train Smarter w/ Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane and Coach Travis Mash #849
2w ago00:53:04Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash break down athlete monitoring, readiness testing, and how coaches can use simple data to make better training decisions. Travis explains how his master's thesis used daily depth jumps, subjective questionnaires, and warm-up performance to track fatigue and readiness in weightlifters. The big lesson: testing only works when you minimize variables, collect enough data to understand normal fluctuations, and know the athlete behind the numbers. The team discusses why reactive strength index, vertical jumps, drop jumps, and counter movement jumps can reveal useful trends in central nervous system readiness, but only when paired with honest communication and smart coaching judgment. The conversation expands into how to adjust training when performance drops, why a 10% decrease may mean it is time to send an athlete home, and why volume is often the first lever to pull before reducing intensity. They also explore broader performance monitoring for everyday athletes, including deadlift strength, pull-ups, mile or mile-and-a-half run times, mobility screens, DEXA scans, VO2 max testing, bloodwork, blood pressure, wearables, and input tracking. Whether you are a coach, lifter, athlete, or performance-minded adult trying to stay strong and healthy over decades, this episode gives you a practical framework for measuring what matters, spotting problems early, and using data to guide better decisions without losing the human side of coaching. Links: Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram
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Cardio For Strength Athletes w/ Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane and Coach Travis Mash #848
3w ago00:51:14Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane break down cardio for strength athletes, especially lifters who have spent years chasing numbers in the gym but have not deliberately trained their heart, lungs, and work capacity. The big idea is simple: the less time you have, the more intensity matters; the more time you have, the more room you have for lower-intensity zone 2 work. Doug explains why strength athletes in their 40s, 50s, and beyond need to consciously program cardio instead of assuming it will happen naturally, while Travis shares how adding consistent conditioning helped him feel better, get leaner, and maintain a higher level of performance without giving up strength training. The conversation gets practical fast. Dr. Mike Lane explains how different forms of cardio create different adaptations, from left ventricle size and stroke volume to capillary density, mitochondrial improvements, blood pressure, cholesterol, and overall longevity. The team covers why sled pushes, assault bike sprints, rowing, hill sprints, carries, and high-resistance cycling can be great options for strength athletes because they drive the heart rate up without beating up the joints. They also lay out simple programming options: one day per week of hard 10-second intervals, two days with an added zone 3 or tempo-style session, and three days with more steady zone 2 work layered in. Whether you are a powerlifter, weightlifter, former athlete, jiu-jitsu player, or just a strong person who does not want to gas out walking up a hill, this episode gives you a simple framework for adding cardio without losing what you built in the gym. Links: Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram
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The Psychology of Self-Sabotage w/ Dr. Ben Steel, Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #847
4w ago00:54:34Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Dr. Ben Steel joins Doug Larson and Dr. Mike Lane to break down the psychology of self-sabotage, performance anxiety, and why high performers often get in their own way. Ben shares his background as a former wrestler, certified mental performance consultant, and mental health counselor, explaining how his own experience with pre-performance anxiety led him into sports psychology. The conversation centers on how athletes and driven people often use avoidance, perfectionism, all-or-nothing thinking, and "paralysis by analysis" as protective mechanisms, not because they are lazy or weak, but because they are trying to avoid shame, embarrassment, failure, or exposure. The team also explores how self-sabotage shows up differently in athletes, lifters, business owners, and high performers. For some people, it looks like blowing a diet, skipping competition, overtraining, or waiting until everything is perfect before taking action. For others, especially successful people, it can look like over-indexing on work or performance while avoiding uncomfortable emotional conversations, relationships, or deeper personal issues. Ben explains how tools like CBT, visualization, breathing, self-talk, arousal regulation, and pre-performance routines can help, but the deeper solution often starts with empathy, trust, outside perspective, and helping people feel understood rather than judged. Big takeaway: self-sabotage is usually not a character flaw. It is a protection strategy. The goal is to identify what pain the person is avoiding, reduce the perceived threat, build confidence through small actions, and help them step into a challenge without needing everything to be perfect first. Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram
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Training for Power with Velocity Based Training w/Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #846
Apr 2900:49:22Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane explain why velocity-based training is a powerful tool for athletes who want to perform better without constantly feeling beat up. Instead of relying on grinders and fatigue-heavy sessions, they show how training with speed and intent can help athletes become more explosive, more efficient, and more prepared for sport. The big picture benefit is simple: you can build strength and power in a way that carries over to sprinting, jumping, changing direction, and competing by focusing on maximizing speed of contraction on every rep. They also make the case that velocity-based training is not just for elite lifters or sports scientists. Used well, it can help athletes make progress with less unnecessary soreness, joint stress, and wasted volume. The practical value is huge: better power production, better recovery management, and a useful and enjoyable way to match training to the real demands of sport. For athletes, that means a better chance of getting faster, stronger, and more powerful over time. Enjoy! Links: Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram
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550 Mile Races w/ Cody Taylor, Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #845
Apr 2200:54:02Tap to summarizeCody Taylor went from living out of a van on a music tour, signed to a major label and playing after Def Leppard, to setting unsupported fastest known times on 550-mile wilderness trails no one had ever completed without a support crew. He didn't start running until 2020. By 2023 he was finishing 100-milers. By 2024 he was carrying a 53-pound pack through 650 kilometers of Quebec backcountry alone, filtering water from mud puddles, taping the skin off his own back, and sleeping on the ground to eventually crossing the finish line. The question isn't how he survived. The question is how he built a body and a mind capable of that. In this episode, Cody breaks down why strength training is a foundational component of his success in elite endurance performance and what it really takes to go unsupported when every pound in your pack matters and no one is coming to help you. He also covers the mental architecture of doing hard things: why 14 days of solitude in the wilderness will permanently change how you experience a glass of tap water. If you train hard, compete seriously, and want to understand what the human body is actually capable of, this episode is for you. Links: Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram
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How AI Is Changing Nutrition Coaching with Rami Alhamad with Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #844
Apr 1500:52:22Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Doug Larson and Dr. Mike Lane sit down with Rami Alhamad, founder of Alma and former creator of Push, to explore how AI is changing nutrition coaching and performance tracking. Rami shares his background in engineering, strength training, and startup building, including the journey of creating Push, the velocity-based training platform later acquired by Whoop. The conversation covers how that experience in sensors, data, and coaching systems led him toward a bigger problem: making personalized nutrition guidance dramatically easier and more useful for real people. They also dig into what makes Alma different from traditional food trackers, including logging meals by voice, text, and photos, along with coaching features that help users spot patterns and make better decisions without getting buried in manual data entry. The second half of the conversation expands into the bigger picture of AI in coaching, health, and business. Doug, Mike, and Rami talk through how tools like wearable integration, supplement tracking, micronutrient guidance, weekly coaching summaries, and coach dashboards can help people stay more consistent while giving coaches better visibility with less friction. They also discuss the future of AI in human performance, why great coaches are more likely to be amplified than replaced, and how the real opportunity is using these tools to automate low-value tasks while preserving the high-trust human relationship that makes coaching effective. For coaches, athletes, and performance-minded listeners, this episode offers a practical look at how AI can improve nutrition and decision-making without losing the personal element that matters most. Links: Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram
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The Performance Pyramid: What Actually Drives Results with Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #843
Apr 800:56:15Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash break down the performance pyramid: a simple way to organize the biggest drivers of strength, muscle, and performance. At the base are the non-negotiables: training, nutrition, and sleep. The crew opens by challenging the idea that tiny programming details or trendy methods can outrun poor fundamentals, using the old Colorado Experiment and the modern return of one-set-to-failure arguments as a perfect example. Their main point is clear: almost everyone wants to skip ahead to advanced tactics, but most real progress still comes from training hard, training consistently, eating enough to support the goal, and sleeping enough to recover. From there, the conversation moves into the second layer of the pyramid: quality and individualization. Once the basics are solid, the next gains come from refining exercise selection, dialing nutrition to the athlete, improving recovery habits, and solving specific weak links. Mash explains that for most lifters and everyday adults, layer one will carry them a very long way, while layer two matters more as you approach elite levels where tiny edges compound over months and years. Mike adds that protein timing, food quality, and recovery details do matter, but only after total calories, total protein, and training consistency are already in place. The message is practical and refreshing: stop putting the cart before the horse, and earn the right to worry about the finer points. Finally, the team gets into the top layer of the pyramid: marginal gains and nuanced decision-making. This is where advanced supplementation, blood work, biomarker analysis, special recovery tools, and sport-specific exceptions can make sense. They discuss when convenience foods may actually have a place for competition fueling, why supplements like creatine, caffeine, beta-alanine, vitamin D, magnesium, B vitamins, and even bicarbonate can matter in the right context, and how truly elite athletes separate themselves by stacking small advantages over time. The big takeaway is that performance is built like a pyramid for a reason: if the base is weak, everything above it becomes unstable, but when the fundamentals are handled, the small details can become the difference between good and world-class. Links: Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram
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Benefits of Single Joint Exercises with Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #842
Apr 100:46:41Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash flip the usual strength conversation on its head and make the case for single joint training. Instead of focusing only on squats, deadlifts, cleans, and presses, they explain when movements like leg curls, calf raises, lateral raises, curls, triceps work, and hip isolation drills become incredibly valuable. The core idea is simple: compound lifts build the foundation, but single joint work helps fill in weak links, improve symmetry, and keep athletes healthy enough to keep progressing. The conversation digs into where isolation work matters most. Mash shares how targeted hamstring work helped address knee pain and imbalance in an elite Olympic weightlifter already operating near the top of the sport. Mike explains that single joint training can deliver hypertrophy and tendon loading without the same global fatigue and axial stress that come with more heavy compound work. The group also connects the dots to sprinting, jumping, jiu-jitsu, and everyday adult performance, showing how training knee flexion, calves, tibialis anterior, glutes, shoulders, and other overlooked areas can improve resilience, movement quality, and injury prevention. They also make a practical case for using isolation work in the real world, especially for busy lifters, aging athletes, and people training around pain or injury. A few hard sets at the end of a session can go a long way, and even one challenging set per week is dramatically better than doing nothing at all. Whether the goal is aesthetics, joint health, better activation, or simply staying in the game longer, this episode is a reminder that good programming is about context, not dogma. Single joint exercises are not a replacement for the basics, but used at the right time and in the right dose, they can be the difference between spinning your wheels and continuing to improve. Links: Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram
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The 20-Rep Squat Method with Scott Charland, Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #841
Mar 2500:56:32Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane sit down with longtime strength coach Scott Charland to unpack what it really takes to build athletes and build a sustainable career in strength and conditioning. Scott shares his path from collegiate strength coach to leading one of the most unusual and impressive sports performance models in the country at Parkview Sports Medicine, where a team of 24 strength coaches works alongside athletic trainers, physical therapists, nutritionists, and mental performance coaches to serve high schools, colleges, and youth athletes. The conversation highlights a major theme early: the high school setting is not the bottom of the profession, it may be the place that most needs elite coaches, clear boundaries, and a better quality of life. From there, the group digs into one of Scott's signature training methods: a brutal but highly effective high-volume squat progression built around sets of 12, 15, 17, and eventually 20 reps in the back squat. Rather than rushing young athletes into heavy percentages, Charland argues that most high school and college athletes need more practice, more muscle, and more time under the bar before they ever need max-effort work. The crew breaks down why high-rep squatting can build technique, hypertrophy, work capacity, bracing, confidence, and mental toughness all at once. They also explain why so many coaches make the mistake of chasing record boards, maxes, and flashy methods too early, when what most athletes really need is development. Finally, the conversation broadens into a bigger critique of the strength profession itself. Scott makes the case that many of the profession's problems come from poor boundaries, ego-driven career decisions, and a culture that glorifies burnout. Instead, he argues for clearly defined roles, better pay floors, healthier schedules, and more realistic career paths, especially at the high school and private-sector levels. If you care about athlete development, coaching careers, or how to build stronger athletes without skipping the foundation, this episode is a direct and practical reminder that more muscle, better movement, and smarter systems still win. Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram
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