The Two Doctors

Hello everyone! Today we share some quick news: the launch of the ATG Podcast! This will basically be a continuation of all the podcasting we do here, just as part of the ATG universe. Go check it out wherever you listen to your podcasts: just search for “ATG Podcast”. Thank you! Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/atg-podcast/id1496864464 RSS […]

A little chat over breakfast at the start of the American Open Finals in Salt Lake City. Guests include Nat Arem of hookgrip, Jen Marchese of One Kilo, and Ethan “Big Dog” Sigmon. Enjoy!

Gregor, Nat, and Dr Boffa check in while Gregor makes the drive from Berlin to Tramelan, Switzerland, for the 49th “Challenge 210” competition—a Bronze level Olympic qualifier that will feature many (most?) athletes from China’s A squad (seriously). Random musings, conversations about Gregor’s rental car, and road noise ensue. Enjoy!

Even MORE ramblings from Bangkok! Some thoughts on the competition and who may end up in Tokyo 2020, among other topics. Recorded in a less-than-ideal restaurant setting, so audio is a little bit dicey at times, but (with any luck) the solid gold content still comes through. Enjoy!

Just a little breakfast café chat post-2019 Worlds from Bangkok. Includes Nat Arem, Dr Boffa, Steve Galvan, and Gregor Winter. Enjoy!

A few of us (finally) left the compound hotel grounds for some food after the women’s 81A and men’s 102A. Banter ensued, as well as a surprise visit by an Olympic Champion. Enjoy!

Some late-night ramblings following a couple of *amazing* days of lifting. We try to cover everything: Shi Zhiyong and the men’s 73s, Kuo Hsing-chun and the women’s 59s, Deng Wei and the Tomanator in the 64s, and of course Lu Xiaojun and the 81s. Enjoy!

A quick breakfast conversation with Hidilyn Diaz of the Philippines, bronze medalist in the 55kg class, recorded the morning after her competition. Enjoy!

Quick update with some random recordings—including a little chat with Meso’s physio—at the 2019 Worlds! The packed schedule and astonishingly slow internet have made podcasting a bit challenging, but with any luck there will be more soon! Enjoy!

Some (very) random updates from the first day when we’re all in Thailand. Includes lots of incoherent and jet-lagged ramblings by podcast regulars as well as some special new guests. Enjoy!

The first field report from the 2019 Worlds in Thailand, before the meet has even begun! Gregor of ATG and Nat of hookgrip are already on the ground sharing their thoughts. Enjoy!

A little pre-2019 Worlds in Thailand podcast with (most of) the commentating team: JP Nicoletta, Sean Waxman, Mike Choi, and Dr Boffa. We go over some behind-the-scenes prep aspects and then talk about the sessions and lifters we’re most excited about (which is nearly all of them). Enjoy!

I return to the Hookgrip Palace cafeteria for more weightlifting talk with Nat Arem. We go over some predictions and thoughts on the upcoming (or currently happening) Pan Am Games and American Open Series 2, speculate on potential Olympic hopefuls, and then dive into some crazy results from Junior athletes in the 1980s. Enjoy! Like […]

Gregor of ATG and I were on a call and decided to record it for a little podcast episode. We talk about visiting some of Team USA as they prepare for the upcoming PanAm Games (Jourdan Delacruz, Harrison Maurus, Kate Nye, and Mattie Sasser), Kate Nye’s huge training lifts from the session, some upcoming ATG […]

While on a trip to New Jersey I stopped down in the southern part of the state to visit Nat Arem at the hookgrip palace. We recorded a nearly three-hour podcast episode while enjoying some fine NJ-diner dining; topics included the upcoming Junior Worlds, the 2020 Qualification system, defining a “great” weightlifter, the HBO show […]

Another post-competition update from Memphis, Tennessee. After 28-ish minutes of rambling conversations—including a discussion of my hotel check-in issues—we eventually get to talking about weightlifting, including Hunter Elam’s performance in the 59s, Travis Cooper in the 81s, some other highlights from the day, our expectations for the final day of the competition, and our efforts […]

Checking in from Memphis, Tennessee, at the 2019 USAW National Championships. Our truly rambling discussion covers a little bit of weightlifting, memories from Rio 2016, credit card points, airplanes, and more. Also includes a quick bonus visit from Cara Heads Slaughter. Enjoy! Remember to support ATG on Patreon for more great weightlifting content!

Nat and Gregor check in with a HUGE three-hour update from the Asian Championships in Ningbo, China. Topics include: their police interview! Recapping the 109kg session with Akbar Djuraev 6/6 with Junior World Records and Ali Hashemi’s 225kg. video reviews in weightlifting (first implemented in Las Vegas at Youth Worlds) Women’s 87kg with Wang Zhouyu’s […]

Weightlifting and Chinese banking experts Nat and Gregor check in with more shenanigans from the Asian Championships in Ningbo, China. After a discussion of a police visit to the hotel room the weightlifting content starts at about minute 30. Enjoy! Weightlifting talk starts at 30 minutes Before that we talk about having police visit us […]

Nat and Gregor check in from the Asian Championships in Ningbo, China. Topics include: a lengthy treaty on the Chinese banking system and trying to exchange 100USD opening a Chinese bank account! weightlifting talk (starting around minute 32) a recap of the Men’s 96 session: Meso vs Tian Tao, Meso 174 and his bomb out, […]

Nat and Gregor check in with more updates! Highlights include: Deng Wei and Toshiki Session recap Meso vs Tian Tao Ilya’s comeback ATG shirts back in stock soon Working on the Hookgrip store Zhang Wangli vs Rim Jong Sim Acquiring weightlifting memorabilia on trips Enjoy! And support ATG on Patreon if you’d like more great […]

The second update from Ningbo, China, and the 2019 Asian Championships. Topics covered include a recap of the previous day’s sessions, the upcoming sessions (M81 and W59), Chinese Olympic qualification potential, what a sport is (and isn’t), and how to fix the CrossFit Games. Enjoy! Support ATG on Patreon! Also on iTunes!

Nat (Hookgrip guy) and Gregor (ATG guy) report on what’s happening at the Asian Championships in Ningbo, China. Check out a great discussion of what the media situation is like in China and (just as important) what the food situation is. Enjoy! Support ATG on Patreon for more great weightlifting content like this! Also on […]

Another update from Taiwan! Enjoy some rambling musings about the drive back from Taitung City to Kaohsiung, our interview with Coach Lin, and the training hall here. Support ATG on Patreon! Also on iTunes!

Greetings from Taiwan! In this short episode, Gregor (of ATG) and I update you on our current trip to visit Kuo Hsing-Chun and her coach. We go over what we’ve done and seen (and eaten) so far, from Taipei to Kaohsiung to Taitung. Enjoy! If you want to support this and future projects, become an […]

Few weightlifting meets—if any—are as legendary as the Arnold Weightlifting Championships, held every year in Columbus, Ohio (and part of the much larger Arnold Expo, which features dozens of sports). For this episode we spoke with Mark Cannella—the founder and Meet Director of the Arnold Weightlifting Championships—and our good friend Joel Quintong, who’s been to […]

Dr Westbrook and I spent a solid hour and a quarter chatting with Kate Nye, an athlete who has distinguished herself nationally and internationally in just a few short years (2018 Jr Worlds Silver medallist, Jr and Sr American record holder in the snatch, to name just a couple of her accomplishments). Enjoy!

Nat Arem, Mike Choi, Ethan Sigmon, and I sat down for some Thai food and recapped the first couple days of the American Open Finals out in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Enjoy the banter and the ambiance!   Also on iTunes!

Now that we’ve all settled in post-World Championships we got together (online) for a little more podcasting. I’m joined by Gregor, Sean Waxman, JP Nicoletta, Mark Cannella, Mike Choi, and Dr Westbrook. We go over our memories of the Worlds and generally just ramble, as is our habit. Enjoy!   Also on iTunes.

The final day of the competition! We chat with a local, briefly recap the final sessions, speculate on next year’s Worlds, hear Nat Arem lament the perception of doping by outsiders, and share some of our favorite lifts of the competition. Also includes some random appearances by anyone who happened to walk by during recording. […]

Possibly our most scattered episode yet! We discuss the usual happenings (including Ilyin’s trolling of the weightlifting community), have special guest Viviana Podhaiski of everyday lifters join us for a bit, and ultimately end up in the swankiest yurt I’ve ever seen. Enjoy!   Also on iTunes!

Some more great casual conversations from the 2018 Worlds. To start we hear some detailed information from Nat Arem on the inner workings of hookgrip and the difficulties of shooting, editing, and sharing good weightlifting footage. Later in the day we recap the sessions, including Lydia Valentin’s (relatively) easy victory and the shenanigans of Ilya […]

Today: Gregor does some curls! In addition to our usual banter, we had the pleasure of getting Maged Salama of Egypt to sit down with us for a bit. Maged coached Germany’s Matthias Steiner in the past and currently works with Meso Hassona of Qatar. There’s also the usual discussion of competition antics, competition mistakes, and […]

More in our continuing series of informal recordings from the World Championships in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. In addition to the day’s sessions and some training hall info, we discuss finally finding some good coffee AND we get some inside information from USAW’s Pedro Meloni on an upcoming rule change in the IWF regarding touching the barbell. […]

More updates from Ashgabat and the 2018 World Championships! We cover the day’s sessions (which included the *amazing* men’s 81A session), chat with the Japanese team’s Hideyuki Nagao, get some inside info on what athletes have been doing in the training hall, and otherwise fill the time with our usual banter. Enjoy!   Also on […]

More recordings from out and about at the 2018 World Championships! We recap the women’s 59A, Rebeka Koha’s performance, make predictions on the men’s 73A, and then (later) see how our predictions played out after the session ended. For the first part of the episode we also have Kelsey Kennedy (USAW’s Marketing & Content Manager) share […]

Another series of impromptu recordings from the World Championships! There’s some wind noise early on affecting audio quality, but that’s unavoidable when you take the show out of the studio and into the world. We discuss some training hall lifts, questionable judging, the Worlds MVP spectator, and even get a visit by the director of […]

Day 2 of our special reports from Ashgabat and the 2018 World Championships! Gregor and I just brought the Zoom H1n recorder along with us and captured some impromptu conversations: a chat over breakfast, one during a midday break, and one at the end of the day. The environment can be quite noisy at times […]

Since Gregor (of ATG fame) and I are currently in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan to help cover the 2018 World Weightlifting Championships he thought it would be fun to do a very informal podcast recording of us chatting at the end of the day. The idea was borne of the fact that this is generally what happens […]

We sat down with Kevin Simons—coach to Harrison Maurus and several other great athletes—for a conversation on coaching Youth athletes, how he developed as a coach, Harrison’s amazing strength journey, and much more. This was our first time recording an episode in person with a guest so we decided to film it as well as […]

Two episodes in two weeks—unprecedented for the Doctors! In this episode we sit down for a great conversation with USA’s Morghan King: 2016 Olympian, three-time National Champion, American record holder (83kg snatch at 48kilos), and multiple-time representative of Team USA on the international stage. Morghan discusses her rapid rise in the sport (the 2012 American […]

In this episode we chat with Latvia’s 58-kilo star Rebeka Koha! Although still a Junior Rebeka has already built up an extremely impressive weightlifting resume: 2016 Olympian (4th), 2017 Junior World Champion, bronze medallist at the 2017 World Championships, and then GOLD medallist at the 2018 European Championships. Rebeka shares her start in the sport, her intense […]

We sit down for a chat with USA’s Harrison Maurus, who recently became the first American male in twenty (20!) years to win a Senior World Championships medal (bronze in total and clean & jerk in the 77s at the 2017 Worlds). Harrison is also a Youth World Record holder, an American Record holder, and—as […]

After a (slight) hiatus, we are joined by Norik Vardanian, an athlete who has been at the highest level of weightlifting in TWO countries: the US and Armenia. Norik covered a range of topics with us, including returning from his most recent injury, training in the USOC vs Armenia, his positive test from 2012, his […]

This past weekend the Doctors were together in lovely Chicago (loosely, Chicago-area), Illinois, for the 2017 USAW National Championships. While there we had the pleasure to record an episode with Cheryl Haworth: 2000 Olympic bronze medallist, 2004 and 2008 Olympian, American record holder, Youth World record holder, and multiple-time National Champion (among other accomplishments). Cheryl spoke with […]

After a slight hiatus, The Two Doctors are back with an interview with US Olympian (2000) Cara Heads Slaughter! She shares her background in the sport, her experiences at the Olympics, and her transition from athlete into coach. Enjoy!   To learn more about Cara and her coaching, check out her site: http://www.chfitnessandperformance.com/     […]

Against all odds, The Two Doctors podcast has reached the milestone of TWENTY episodes! And with us for this show is a VERY special guest: Canada’s Christine Girard, a two-time Olympian (2008 and 2012) and (soon-to-be) multiple Olympic medallist AND presumed Olympic Champion (2012), once the IWF sorts out the drug-testing fiasco of those Games. Christine […]

In this episode we have TWO special guests from the IWF Executive Board: Sam Coffa and Moira Lassen. They share their thoughts and insights on a range of topics: new and upcoming rule changes in the IWF, reactions to the 2008 and 2012 retests, the use of video replay in judging, the addition of a […]