Barbell Shrugged

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we welcome Dr. Andy Fry to the show. Dr. Fry is a pioneer and legend in the world of strength and conditioning and someone who helped shape my career long before this podcast existed. He served as an advisor and mentor to both me and Dr. Andy Galpin during our early years at the University of Memphis. He's one of the most impressive scientists in the industry, with approximately 300 research papers produced by him and his teams over the years, all dedicated to learning what really works to improve human performance. He's done more than almost anyone on the planet to push the industry forward. He's a true professional, an excellent scientist and educator, an overall great guy, and someone for whom I have an enormous amount of respect. If you're curious about where the science and practice of strength training started and how it has improved and evolved over the years, this episode is for you. Enjoy the show!

Former Division I and professional basketball player Gini Grimsley joins Doug Larson, Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to discuss one of the hardest transitions in fitness: going from competitive athlete to normal life without losing the identity, structure, and physical capability that sports provided. Gini explains why former athletes often struggle to stop comparing themselves to their younger selves—and how the desire to prove what they can still do can lead to unnecessary pain, injury, and frustration. The team explores how athletes can redirect their competitive drive, establish new performance goals, and build a training routine around who they are today. Gini also breaks down her current approach to lifelong athleticism, including strength training, conditioning, plyometrics, unilateral movements, rotational work, and reactive activities such as pickleball. She explains how modifying exercises can preserve intensity while reducing orthopedic stress, why adults should rebuild tissue tolerance before jumping into races or high-volume programs, and how smart assessments can prevent trainers from overwhelming unprepared clients. Whether you are a former athlete or simply want to remain strong, fast, and capable as you age, this episode offers a practical framework for training hard without allowing your ego to destroy your body.

Cody McBroom joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to break down what separates a list of exercises from real coaching. As a strength coach, online coaching business owner, and host of the Choose Hard podcast, Cody works with "advanced general population" clients who have tried to train and diet but still cannot connect the dots. The crew gets practical about why many people fail to progress: they are training too far from true effort, cutting ranges of motion short, or following a program without understanding how hard the work should feel. Cody explains how thoughtful exercise selection, rep ranges, video feedback, and clear progression can help online coaches create programs that are harder to misinterpret—and more likely to produce results. The conversation then moves past macros and reps into the real challenge of coaching: behavior change. Cody shares his framework for helping clients build self-control, self-discipline, self-belief, and ultimately self-respect by tying health goals to their core values and creating evidence through small, kept promises. They unpack how to handle all-or-nothing thinking, why accountability has to lead to a specific action plan, and how coaches can ask better questions instead of settling for "I'll try harder." Whether you coach athletes, general-population clients, or yourself, this episode offers a sharper way to turn good intentions into lasting habits and sustainable results.

In this episode, 10-time CrossFit Games champion Thomas Miazga joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to share the extraordinary path that took him from a childhood shaped by cerebral palsy to the Paralympic Games, elite adaptive CrossFit competition, and beyond. Tom reflects on discovering freedom and athletic identity in the water, qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics just 18 months after returning to competitive swimming, and how a devastatingly close miss for the London Games eventually led him toward coaching, CrossFit, and a new definition of what was possible. The crew also digs into the practical side of training an adaptive athlete: building strength around the individual, managing high upper-body training volume, using stable equipment to create safe loading opportunities, and prioritizing training economy over unnecessary technical complexity. Tom explains how CrossFit transformed his independence in daily life, helped him become a 10-time Games champion, and continues to fuel his pursuit of HYROX, Ironman racing, and long-term health. Most importantly, this is a conversation about refusing to let a diagnosis, a scoreboard, or someone else's expectations define your potential.

Dr. Sean Pastuch sits down with Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to talk about what he's learned the hard way about chronic pain, discipline and how to get back to training pain free. Pulling from his new book *Live More, Hurt Less*, Sean breaks down why so many lifters end up organizing their entire life around avoiding pain, and how that strategy inevitably makes training less fun than it used to be. He shares his own story of dealing with seven years of debilitating neck pain, and how nothing changed until he finally had a compelling reason to change it. That meant hiring a coach, getting serious about sleep and nutrition, delegating the stressors he was carrying, and making recovery the highest priority in his life. The conversation digs into how the story you tell yourself, the things you do every day, and the people you surround yourself with either reinforce your limitations or help you take your agency back. Sean gets practical about how to actually talk to doctors so you can get what you need, as well as how to set real expectations between coaches and clients. The team also gets into what ethical sales actually looks like in coaching, why good coaches need to screen for real commitment, and how the best practitioners stay directionally correct without pretending they have all the answers. If pain, fear, or stagnation has made your world smaller than you want it to be, this episode lays out a framework for rebuilding capacity, getting stronger, restoring confidence, and getting back to the things that actually matter to you.  

In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, blood flow restriction specialist Dr. Michael MacPherson joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to break down how BFR training can be used for far more than post-injury rehabilitation. Michael explains how strategically restricting blood flow creates a hypoxic environment that increases type II muscle fiber recruitment, metabolic stress, and cellular swelling—even when training with relatively light loads. The result is a powerful tool for building or maintaining strength and muscle while reducing the mechanical stress placed on joints and connective tissue. They also discuss limb occlusion pressure, why cuff design matters, and why modern BFR protocols don't need to be brutally painful to work. The conversation expands into practical applications for athletes, lifters, and anyone looking to improve performance or recovery. Michael explains how BFR walking, cycling, leg curls, Nordics, plyometrics, and even passive recovery sessions can be incorporated into training, with walking protocols as simple as 10–15 minutes at roughly 30–60% limb occlusion pressure. The team also explores how BFR may help athletes strengthen commonly neglected areas like the hamstrings without adding significant training fatigue, making it especially useful during heavy training blocks, travel, injury rehabilitation, and return-to-play programs. Whether you're trying to add muscle, protect irritated joints, improve conditioning, or address weak links without piling on more heavy loading, this episode provides a practical framework for adding BFR to your training.

In this episode, Doug Larson joins Coach Travis Mash and Dr. Mike Lane to break down what it takes to build a scalable strength and conditioning program for police officers. Mash shares his new partnership with the Winston-Salem Police Department, beginning with a six-week, 15-person pilot designed to refine onboarding, testing, training, and ongoing monitoring before expanding to roughly 600 officers and support staff. The team explains why tactical fitness must be built around a job-task analysis: officers may spend hours sitting in a patrol vehicle, then suddenly need to sprint, grapple, drag a person, or make a high-stakes decision while wearing a vest and duty gear. The conversation covers how to assess reactive strength, tissue readiness, total-body power, relative strength, aerobic capacity, and repeat-effort conditioning without injuring or overwhelming the people being tested. They examine why generic standards like a mile-and-a-half run or 175-pound dummy drag may not fully reflect real-world demands, how a larger fitness reserve protects situational awareness under stress, and why cardiovascular conditioning can be a survival skill, not just a performance metric. They also discuss the mobility problems created by long hours in a patrol car, including restricted hips, shoulders, and lower backs, and how loaded mobility and heavy isometrics can help tactical professionals, and aging athletes, stay capable, resilient, and ready when the stakes are highest.

In this episode, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane break down everything athletes need to know about protein: what it does, how much you actually need, and how to make it work in the real world. They dismantle the myth that the body can only use 30–35 grams per meal, explain why protein needs should scale with lean body mass and training goals, and show how distributing protein across three or four meals can support muscle growth, recovery, and performance without obsessing over a narrow post-workout window. The conversation then compares animal and plant proteins, whole foods and powders, whey and casein, and the potential role of collagen for connective tissue. They explain why the calories accompanying a protein source matter (beef ribeye, chicken breast, lentils, and peanut butter deliver radically different amounts of fat, carbohydrates, and fiber) and how your choices should change when gaining muscle versus losing fat. From ready-to-drink shakes and egg-white blends to pre-bed protein and workout-day carbohydrates, this episode provides a simple framework for hitting your protein target while adapting the details to your body, schedule, and goals.

Dr. Eric Trexler returns to Barbell Shrugged to break down one of the most misunderstood subjects in fitness: how the body adapts to dieting, exercise, and energy restriction. Eric, a Duke University researcher with a PhD in Human Movement Science, joins Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash to explain the constrained energy expenditure model, why cardio does not always produce the linear calorie burn people expect, and why the context of your diet matters. They cover metabolic adaptation, under-fueling in endurance and weight-class athletes, and why the body creates more friction as you get leaner or try to train hard on a fixed calorie budget. The crew also gets practical about fat-loss plateaus, "weight-loss resistance," diet breaks, refeeds, and reverse dieting. Eric explains why tracking errors often masquerade as metabolic problems, why getting extremely lean carries real performance and lifestyle tradeoffs, and why slower timelines are often the smarter move. He also shares what the research actually says about using refeeds and diet breaks to preserve metabolism and why aggressively beginning recovery after a hard diet may be more effective than dragging out a reverse diet. Whether you are cutting for a weight-class sport, chasing a physique goal, or simply trying to lose body fat without losing your mind, this episode will help you make better decisions with your nutrition and training. Links: Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram

In this episode, OG Barbell Shrugged crew member Alex Maclin joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to talk nutrition for jiu-jitsu, combat sports, and high-performance training. Alex shares his evolution from overweight beginner to Olympic weightlifter, nutrition coach, and four-stripe brown belt, explaining how his personal nutrition shifted from fat loss to strength, aesthetics, and now athletic performance and recovery. The crew breaks down practical fueling strategies for grapplers, including why total calories come first, why carbohydrates are king for high-intensity scrambles, and how protein, hydration, sodium, and nutrient timing all affect recovery and performance. Alex explains how to eat before training, what to use during longer or hotter sessions, why tournament-day nutrition must account for adrenaline and digestion, and how caffeine can help or hurt depending on arousal. Whether you train jiu-jitsu, CrossFit, weightlifting, or just want to perform better, this episode gives you a simple framework for eating like an athlete. Links: Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram