Podcast appearances and mentions of Mark Rippetoe

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES This week we welcome one of the founding fathers of fives, Mark Rippetoe. Mark is best known for his excellent strength training program, his books (Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training and Practical Programming for Strength Training are musts for all new strength training entrants) and hosts the Starting Strength Radio Podcast once weekly from his gym, the Wichita Falls Athletic Club, in Texas. Join us for some QUALITY Bitcoin and economics talk, with a Canadian focus, every Monday at 7 PM EST. From a couple of Canucks who like to talk about how Bitcoin will impact Canada. As always, none of the info is financial advice. Website: ⁠www.CanadianBitcoiners.com ⁠Discord:   / discord   A part of the CBP Media Network: ⁠www.twitter.com/CBPMediaNetwork This show is sponsored by: easyDNS - ⁠⁠www.easydns.com⁠⁠ EasyDNS is the best spot for Anycast DNS, domain name registrations, web and email services. They are fast, reliable and privacy focused. You can even pay for your services with Bitcoin! Apply coupon code 'CBPMEDIA' for 50% off initial purchase Bull Bitcoin - ⁠⁠https://mission.bullbitcoin.com/cbp⁠⁠ The CBP recommends Bull Bitcoin for all your BTC needs. There's never been a quicker, simpler, way to acquire Bitcoin. Use the link above for $20 bones, and take advantage of all Bull Bitcoin has to offer. D-Central Technologies - https://d-central.tech/ Your home for all things mining! Whether you need a new unit, a unit repaired, some support with software, or you want to start your own wife-friendly home mining operation, the guys at D-Central Tech are ready to help. With industry leading knowledge and expertise, let the D-Central team help you get started mining the hardest money on Earth.

Endlich gibt es wieder eine Runde Real Talk mit dem einzig wahren Mr Powerlifting, Markus Beuter. Und was können Olaf und Markus besser als fachsimpeln? Genau, eure Fragen beantworten. So geht es heute unter anderem darum wie genau Markus aktuell trainiert (inklusive Bandagentraining), was es eigentlich heißt im submaximalen Wiederholungsbereich zu trainieren und ob Periodisierung im Bodybuilding Training sinnvoll ist. Auch geht es um das Wachstum der Wadenmuskulatur, um Fascia Stretch Training und einige weitere spannende Fragestellungen. Mark Rippetoe, Begründer von Starting Strength & der Texas Method, bezogen auf eine maximale Wiederholung: “Relativ stark meint etwa eine technisch korrekte, maximale Wiederholung mit folgenden Werten: Bankdrücken mit kurzer Pause auf der Brust 1,25-1,5faches Körpergewicht Kniebeugen tiefer als parallel 1,75-2faches Körpergewicht Kreuzheben 2faches Körpergewicht oder mehr Overhead / Military Press ohne Schwung und ohne Beinbeteiligung 0,75-1faches Körpergewicht Power Clean 0,75-1faches Körpergewicht“ Ebenfalls in der Episode genannt: Mike Tuchscherer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markus_beuter/ WERBUNG: Zu allen aktuellen Kooperationen von Stronger Than You geht es hier entlang: https://linktr.ee/stronger.than.you.koops

In this episode we're diving into the fundamentals of how to get strong, and our guest is one of the best in the game at taking novices to pretty serious levels of strength. Andy Baker began his career in the strength & conditioning industry in 2001, as an intern while attending Texas A&M University. Like many people in the early 2000s he witnessed 9/11 and thought exercise science lectures might not be exactly where he needed to be, so in 2003, he stepped away from college and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served multiple combat tours in Iraq between 2003-2007. While serving on active duty he continued to coach clients and finished his undergraduate degree in Health & Sport Science from American Military University. In 2007, he opened the doors to Kingwood Strength & Conditioning (now Baker Personal Training) and he has served as the owner and lead trainer for the past 16 years! His clients range from Division I college athletes to people in their 80s! As you'll hear in the episode he's been extensively involved in Starting Strength working with Mark Rippetoe, including co-authoring the current edition of Practical Programming for Strength Training and the Barbell Prescription. He has also competed as a Raw and Drug-Free Powerlifter with the Natural Athlete Strength Association. In 2010, I won the N.A.S.A. Grand Nationals in the 198 lb raw division. My winning total included a 529 lb Squat, 380 lb Bench Press, and 562 lb Deadlift. We didn't work it into today's discussion, but his rebrand from strength and conditioning to personal training has also involved a refocus on older adults and strength training for longevity. As that space grows, he has made some really important contributions to that expanding part of the fitness industry.

GOMAD, or "Gallon of Milk a Day," was a protocol popularized by strength coach Mark Rippetoe (of Starting Strength), to ensure rapid weight gain and muscle growth. The idea is to bulk up quickly. You just chug a gallon of milk a day. Easy right?But before you start doing that, I want you to tune in to today's Quick Wits for my take on this sometimes controversial protocol and why it might not be the best approach for everyone, especially if you're not a skinny 20-something-year-old male. GOMAD was originally intended for a very specific demographic - skinny, underweight guys in their late teens and early 20s who struggle to put on any weight at all. For these folks, the massive calorie boost from a gallon of milk a day can kickstart muscle gain and help them get out of the "hardgainer" zone.But if you're not in that category, then GOMAD might not be the best fit. If you're older, or if you're not significantly underweight, drinking that much milk every day is more likely to lead to excessive fat gain than lean muscle growth. Not to mention, it can be pretty tough on your digestive system, especially if you're not used to processing that much lactose.But I'm not against using milk as a calorie-dense, macro-balanced tool as part of your nutrition plan. Tune in to hear my thoughts on this.--“Quick Wits” are short mini-episodes between full episodes to give you an actionable strategy or hit of motivation.If you enjoy these bonus episodes or have feedback on how to make them better, just send me a text message.

To quote Mark Rippetoe, "women are not a special population, they are half the population." In other words, women fundamentally train for strength the same way that men do -- the same principles of progressive overload, using compound barbell lifts that target the whole body, and nutritional principles apply. There are a few exceptions, however, and that's what Dr. Santana and Coach Trent address in today's episode.   How Birth Control Can Inhibit Strength and Performance by Lea Genders: https://www.leagendersfitness.com/news/how-hormonal-birth-control-can-inhibit-strength-and-muscle-development   Weights & Plates is now on YouTube! https://youtube.com/@weights_and_plates?si=ebAS8sRtzsPmFQf-   Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream Email: jonesbarbellclub@gmail.com  

  elitefts Limited Edition Apparel: https://www.elitefts.com/shop/apparel/limited-edition.html             Support and help the Podcast grow by Joining The Crew:  https://whop.com/tabletalkcrew/            In this 251st episode of Dave Tate's Table Talk, Andy Baker joins us. Welcome, Andy!   Andy Baker has been working in the industry as a private strength and conditioning coach and personal trainer for the past 22 years. Since 2007, Andy has owned Baker Personal Training (formerly Kingwood Strength & Conditioning) - a 2500 sqft private training facility located in Kingwood, TX, just north of Houston. His clients include a wide range of individuals, from Division I college athletes to the elderly and essentially anyone in between.    Andy's online coaching practice focuses on competitive and non-competitive powerlifting, physique development, and sports performance for a wide range of athletes.    In 2022, Andy was proud to take long time client 71 year old client Shelly Stettner to the IPF Masters World Championships, where she won 1st place in the M4 63kg and set multiple world records.    In 2014, Andy co-authored the 3rd edition of Practical Programming for Strength Training with industry leader Mark Rippetoe. PPST3 seeks to clarify the differences between Exercise and Training, and walks the reader through the detailed mechanics of programming for long-term progress in the weight room. PPST3 clarifies the concrete differences between Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced Trainees and outlines appropriate training programs for athletes at various stages of advancement.    In 2016, Andy co-authored his second book The Barbell Prescription: Training for Life After 40, with Dr. Jonathan Sullivan. BBRx outlines the importance of and methodologies for strength training for those in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond. It is the most comprehensive text on the subject of strength training for the aging athlete currently available.    Andy is also a former United States Marine, serving multiple combat tours of Iraq between 2003 and 2007.   Andy's IG: https://www.instagram.com/bakerbarbell/   Primary Website: www.AndyBaker.com   Gym Website: www.BakerPersonalTraining.com   Baker Barbell Podcast:   Baker Barbell Podcast | Podcast on Spotify             ABOUT THE HOST   Dave Tate is the founder and co-owner of elitefts.com. He is the author of twenty books and has logged more than 40,000 hours of training and consulting. Dave is married to elitefts co-owner Traci Arnold-Tate, and they reside in London, Ohio, with their two sons. Personal Credo: Live, Learn, Pass on™.   Dave's IG: https://www.instagram.com/underthebar/?hl=en              SPONSORS         Marek Health    Marek Health is the telehealth platform that connects customers to partnered providers focusing on hormone optimization and preventative medicine—offering self-service labs at great prices and guided optimization.    Check out the Table Talk Lab Panel (84 different biomarkers + urinalysis) AND the NEW! Check-up Panel (an affordable option for a monthly check-up).    Use Code Tabletalk for 10% off your first order.    www.MarekHealth.com/tabletalk            elitefts   If you can put it in a gym bag or load weight on it, we have you covered.     https://www.elitefts.com/    Use Code TABLE TALK for 10% off your first elitefts order.           SUPPORT THE SHOW   All profits from elitefts Limited Edition Apparel, Table Talk Coffee, and Team elitefts Workouts, Programs, and Training eBooks support Dave Tate's Table Talk Podcast. Shop these elitefts items: https://www.elitefts.com/content/table-talk/       Support Dave Tate's Table Talk podcast by joining the crew.  https://whop.com/tabletalkcrew/       elitefts Shop: https://www.elitefts.com/       elitefts IG: https://www.instagram.com/elitefts/         SPONSORSHIP/PODCAST INQUIRIES   For sponsorships or business inquiries, reach out to tabletalkmedia@elitefts.net   For Podcast inquiries, please DM @elitefts on Instagram or email tabletalkguest@elitefts.net     #DDTTTP   #DTTTP   #ddttp

"Strength." The word echoes through our culture. But do we truly understand its importance? Imagine moving through life with the strength of your youth, defying age and societal expectations. This episode features the godfather of strength training: Mark Rippetoe. "Rip", (as he is affectionately known), illuminates the crucial role of strength in our lives, going beyond aesthetics and into survival. He  demystifies the process of building muscle and breaks down the complex world of strength training into simple and effective methods. He delves into the fundamentals of human movement patterns and how to apply force against resistance to reveal the core principle of strength training. As an example, he explains the art of squatting effectively and why a slight angle is more efficient, debunking many misconceptions around squats.Strength is not just about looking good - it's a fundamental aspect of our existence that helps us withstand environmental challenges. More muscle mass doesn't just mean a better physique, it means a better life, especially as we age. Rip analyzes the physiological differences between a deadlift and a squat, clarifying the complex contraction orders and angles involved in these exercises. The mission is clear: build strength for a healthier, more fulfilling life. He compares the contrasting effects of squats and deadlifts on muscle development, providing clarity and guidance for your strength training journey. Shatter societal stereotypes about strength training. No matter your age or gender, this episode will encourage you to prioritize your own progress and strength. And for those who find the world of strength training overwhelming, he simplifies the process. He explains the benefits of using sets of five reps, striking a balance between work and weight, and highlights the simplicity of strength training for metabolic improvement and muscle growth. This episode will encourage you to build a stronger, more satisfying life. Chances are, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you didn't need to change your life and get healthier. So take action right now. Book a call with Dr. Ovadia's team. One small step in the right direction is all it takes to get started. How to connect with Stay Off My Operating Table:Twitter: Dr. Ovadia: @iFixHearts Jack Heald: @JackHeald5 Learn more: Learn more about Dr. Ovadia's personalized health coaching Get Dr. Ovadia's book Stay Off My Operating Table on Amazon. Take Dr. Ovadia's metabolic health quiz: iFixHearts visit Dr. Ovadia's website: Ovadia Heart Health visit Jack Heald's website: CultYourBrand.com Theme Song : Rage AgainstWritten & Performed by Logan Gritton & Colin Gailey(c) 2016 Mercury Retro Recordings

In this week's Coach's Corner, I'm talking all about getting started with strength training after 50. I began this episode by discussing why strength training is so important as we age. Building muscle helps optimize our metabolism, protects us against injury, extends our life expectancy, and makes us "harder to kill" as Mark Rippetoe likes to say. Strength training is also your fat-burning friend since adding muscle revs up your metabolism and turns you into a fat burning machine. Other benefits of strength training include improving overall health, bone density, sleep quality, hormonal profile, libido, and overall quality of life. The bottom line - you're never too old to start strength training!Next, I got into the details of how to start strength training for beginners over 50. I talked about proper "dosing" of strength training by finding the right balance of training frequency, intensity, and volume. For most beginners, I recommend full body workouts 3 days per week, 45-60 minutes per workout, stopping short of technical failure, and keeping intensity around a 7-8 on the Rate of Perceived Exertion scale. I also covered some of the basics like sets, reps and rest periods. For beginners, I suggest 3 sets of 8-12 reps for each exercise, with 1-2 minutes of rest between sets. We want to focus on compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows, but also incorporate some isolation moves. And we always need a proper warm-up before diving into the workout!To demonstrate how to put together a beginner strength routine, I provided a sample 3 day full body workout plan with specific exercises. I also noted that you don't need a gym to get started - you can begin with bands, dumbbells, or bodyweight at home. Just focus on progressively overloading over time.I know that was a lot of info packed into a short episode! My best advice is to not overthink it and just get started. Download the workout anywhere guide and get some bands if needed. And check out the app I mentioned which has tons of guided programs. If you want to lose weight, get healthy, reclaim your sexy, and be an all-around over 50 badass, start strength training today!You can find all the resources mentioned in the show notes over at silveredgefitness.com/243. Thanks for listening and see you next time!Want to rewrite the narrative of your life and health? Visit the link below to see if our 1:1 coaching services are a perfect fit for your long term goals: https://calendly.com/thesilveredge/coaching-inquiry Want more over 50 health and wellness goodness? Check out our private Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/silveredgefitness

    Mark Rippetoe and Marty Gallagher Interview (3 Parts): Part 1: https://youtu.be/siaDQdpQPRQ?si=jBBEqMFP6drd1mKm Part 2: https://youtu.be/TxjibbKJ8UE?si=YilgpD6MG6bxAGZG Part 3: https://youtu.be/RIe_7ODKycQ?si=6t5M2L88a0J7DvGV   Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream https://www.jonesbarbellclub.com

There's something about the vibe of the old school, black iron gym. Whether it's a powerlifting dungeon straight out of the 80's, a bodybuilding gym packed full of machines and dumbbells, or a weightlifting hall with rows and rows of platforms, the single-purpose gym dedicated to training (not merely exercise) is a special place. A place where shit gets done, where hard effort and consistency are the primary currency. These gyms are hard to find, but you know them when you walk in the door. The energy is palpable.   In today's world of online coaching and affordable home gym setups, many trainees haven't experienced this sort of old school gym, and they probably should! If you're serious about your training, you owe it to yourself to train at a gym like this. Whether you're a novice struggling to squat 315 (or 200!) or a you've been at it for years and feeling burnt out, training at an old school gym -- even if it's just for a little while -- can ignite some fire and passion in your training program and set you up for success.   Mark Rippetoe and Marty Gallagher Interview (3 Parts): Part 1: https://youtu.be/siaDQdpQPRQ?si=jBBEqMFP6drd1mKm Part 2: https://youtu.be/TxjibbKJ8UE?si=YilgpD6MG6bxAGZG Part 3: https://youtu.be/RIe_7ODKycQ?si=6t5M2L88a0J7DvGV   Kirk Karwoski squat instructional video (he squats 600x8 beltless at the end!): https://youtu.be/-hd8mN765KQ?si=PktYt_b5x3Zxo3ac   Karwoski 1,000lbs double: https://youtu.be/Oo1tU1YqPp0?si=xDLu_pO-5jfW0bQq     Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream https://www.jonesbarbellclub.com

Ever wondered how an elite athlete secures longevity? Tune in as Mark Rippetoe and John Welbourn discuss the importance of tailoring a training program to the your particular audience, how Olympic sports has changed, and why no frills essential movements are important for everyone. You know you're guaranteed a good time when these two get together! Shownotes: https://pahq.co/Ep710 Are you new to training or returning to it after time away? Don't bypass untapped potential, follow Bedrock and lay the foundation to build unparalleled strength, speed and power. START TODAY - https://powerathletehq.com/bedrock/ Check out what we do: Training - https://powerathletehq.com/training Nutrition - https://powerathletehq.com/nutrition Knowledge - https://academy.powerathletehq.com Follow Mark Rippetoe on Insta @startingstrength

Dr. Robert and Coach Trent recently met up in Wichita Falls, TX, the home of the Starting Strength organization, for a strengthlifting meet at Wichita Falls Athletic Club. While they were there they sat down with the man himself, Mark Rippetoe, author of Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training 3rd Edition and many other books and articles, to chat about how much the food landscape has changed in his liftetime.   They also touch on the obsession with leanness in modern popular media, and how the average individual can look much better in a t-shirt with proper strength training, but not random trips to the gym to catch a pump.   You can find Rip and all his books, articles, videos, podcasts, and more at the mainsite for Starting Strength: https://startingstrength.com     Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream https://www.jonesbarbellclub.com

Today we're examining the world of programming and coaching with my special guest, Andy Baker. We get into programming principles for lifters of different ages and experience levels, whether your goal is to improve strength, performance, or body composition, or just have fun but effective workouts. We also talk about Andy's career as a coach,  training principles and methods, and what he's been up to lately.If you don't already know him, Andy Baker is a highly sought-after strength coach, personal trainer, competitive raw and drug-free powerlifter, and co-author of two best-selling books on strength training.Andy's books and programming changed my life when I finally figured things out and got my act together back in 2020 and did my first novice linear progression with Starting Strength. I've since run several of his programs, my favorite being The KSC Method for Power-Building, and I've been a group client of his Baker Barbell Club since 2021._________

RPE is a commonly used tool for programming, and has continued to grow in popularity with the rise of barbell training, barbell sports such as powerlifting, and the online coaching industry. It's a novel tool which uses the lifters' perception of their effort (RPE stands for rate of perceived exertion) on a given set, on any given day, to influence programming decisions. It's an innovative way to approach programming, and certainly convenient for online coaches that don't have the benefit of watching lifters perform in real time, but is it actually useful? Coach Robert and Coach Trent debate the merits of RPE, and discuss the related concept of autoregulation, in today's episode.   Usually RPE is assigned to a set and rep scheme, such as "perform a single at RPE 8," and the lifter will choose the load depending on their perceived exertion level. If the lifter is feeling fresh and full of energy, they will go heavier; on the other hand if they go into the workout fatigued and low energy, they will go lighter. In both cases, the perceived exertion is the same. This is a form of autoregulation, an important aspect of programming for advanced trainees in which the programming must adapt to the fatigue level of the trainee from workout to workout. Performance becomes more unpredictable the more advanced a trainee becomes, and autoregulation is important to avoid injuries and overtraining during periods of high fatigue, as well as take advantage of good days when energy is high and the loads are moving fast.   For a novice trainee, however, RPE and autoregulation can be a minefield. Novices by definition lack the experience to understand what their level of exertion is on any given set, relative to what their total capacity for exertion. The process of linear progression, in fact, retrains the mind about what is possible as the lifter continually tackles heavier and heavier weights, often well past the point they thought they could go. Even for intermediate trainees, using RPE prescriptively to determine working loads can result in undertraining, or trainees spinning their wheels, if their weight selection does not involve regular progressive overload.   So... is RPE bullshit? Not quite. It can be a useful tool for the right lifter, but that lifter is probably fairly advanced and has accumulated a lot of time under heavy weights. For most people training in the gym, who are novices or perhaps early intermediates, it's not a great way to approach programming. At least Coach Robert and Coach Trent don't recommend it.   RPE Chart -- Reactive Training Systems https://articles.reactivetrainingsystems.com/2017/12/05/how-to-use-rpe-in-your-training-correctly/   Mike Tuscherer Interview with Mark Rippetoe https://youtu.be/PTCFaEPBWJQ     Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream https://www.jonesbarbellclub.com

On this weeks episode, we are joined by the lifting legend from Texas, Mark Rippetoe! He gives us a down and dirty look behind the curtains of his career as an athlete, coach, and author of all things related to picking up heavy stuff!For more about Mark Rippetoe:https://startingstrength.com/For information on our sponsor 1776:https://1776insurance.com/For more information on training:https://www.tridentconcepts.com/To follow the BPW podcast on our socials:https://www.ar15.com/bulletproof-workshop/

00:00 - Intro00:52 - Dan on Easy Strength Sequencing04:32 - What Are Your Thoughts on Bret Contreras' Training Method10:12 - How To Build Abs Using The Ab-Wheel16:43 - The Differences Between The Standard One Arm Military Press And Half Kneeling One20:55 - How Will 85 Year Old Dan Train23:41 - Dan on Mark Rippetoe's Kettlebell Comments24:35 - Benefits Of KB Training Vs Barbell Training► Personalized workouts based on your schedule, ability, and equipment options. http://www.DanJohnUniversity.com.► If you're interested in getting coached by Dan personally, go to http://DanJohnInnerCircle.com to apply for his private coaching group.

Welcome to The Old Dog Pack Show — the world's premier podcast regarding the mind, body, soul, and money of the middle-aged man.   In episode 66, the boys welcome Cory “The Governor” Dakin back to the show. Curiously, this might be the best show we've ever done, but it sounds like shit when put into words. Dr. Rees is in a funk and can't find the motivation to work out. Craig is getting back to his lifting roots and gets back into Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. The boys discuss testosterone replacement therapy. They discuss plastic surgery for men. They discuss the musical genius of Ratt. They discuss Mena Suvari. What more could you ask for? Not fucking much.   Sure, you can check us out at the usual outposts such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but for those of you who need more visual stimulation, you can now check out the show on YouTube at YouTube.com/@olddogpack.  Wait a second.  This episode was crippled by some technical difficulties that gave us about 10 minutes of video footage. We're still figuring out how to do video efficiently and effectively, and we failed insofar as video goes on tis episode. However, the audio is glorious.   If you would like to do us a big favor, go on over to Apple Podcasts and leave a 5 star rating and/or a short review. We may not deserve it yet, but we will one of these days. Click ‘subscribe' while you're there. We'd also appreciate if you would share us with a friend. You can also check us out at olddogpack.com, where you can sign up for The Old Dog Pack newsletter. It may not be great, but it don't cost nothing.

Should you be doing cardio or weight training at the gym to age well. Are you wasting your time at the gym doing the wrong exercises. In this episode, Dr. Armstrong and Corbin Bruton share an article by Mark Rippetoe of Starting Strength ("Are You Wasting Your Time in the Gym?") and share their thoughts on how "Weight Lifting in Old Age Does More Than Just Keep Your Muscles Strong."Have questions you want answered and topics you want discussed on "Aging Well"? Send us an email at agingwell.podcast@gmail.com or record your question for us to use in an upcoming episode:https://www.speakpipe.com/AgingWellPodcast

Pat and Aleks take a deeper look at Mark Rippetoe's recent podcast trashing kettlebells. Are kettlebells really useless, as Rippetoe claims? What, if anything, can we learn from his criticisms? For 101 FREE #kettlebell workouts visit http://www.101kettlebellworkouts.com 

Nick Delgadillo is the head instructor over the Starting Strength coach certification program and the founder of Lift, Fight, Win.   Starting Strength under the leadership of Mark Rippetoe, author of the storied book of the same title has been making people stronger and more useful for years.  The program is a reductionist barbell training system using archetypal human movement biomechanics with linear progression and movement cues that everyone can easily learn.  For more information: Starting Strength or to buy a book Starting Strength Book Nick is also a JiuJitsu and Combatives coach at IOWAPARKBJJ.COM In this show we talk at length about Nick's life and contribution as a consummate coach.  We also do a small After Action Review of the recent Rangemaster Advanced Firearms Instructor Development Course that Nick, Eric and Aaron attended together.   Lastly check out the Starting Strength Podcast for additional strength and fitness news and discussion.   Please subscribe and share our podcast with friends and family.  Visit our website for bios, future events and info at www.evosec.org  Like, follow and share us on Facebook and Instagram @evosecusa WE ARE PUMPED TO HAVE A NEW AFFILIATE LINK FOR ORIGIN AND JOCKO FUEL!!!  Help support this show by purchasing any of your JiuJitsu gear, Jocko Supplements, books clothing and more... link below. Origin/Jocko Fuel – Bringing back American manufacturing, producing the best Jiu-Jitsu Gis on the market, Jeans, rash guards, and world class supplements to help you on the path.  Use EvoSec10 at checkout for 10% off, this helps us greatly.  EVOSEC Originusa.com AFFILIATE LINK Keepers Concealment Original authority on Appendix Holsters, Appendix Training  Offer high-Performance Handgun Training - specializing in Concealed Carry Performance.  Keepers Concealment also - proud affiliate CCWSAFE, the truly proven legal service membership company - offering dedicated legal defense heaven forbid you're forced to use lethal force.   To buy a holster, sign up for a class, inquire about hosting a course or join CCWsafe, Use EVOTWINS for 10% off.  Keepersconcealment.com To sign up for CCWsafe: https://keepersconcealment.com/ccw-safe Tenicor – www.tenicor.com they are educators, and innovators in the holster market.  They are firearms instructors themselves, pressure testing their gear in multiple force on force events every year.  We support those who do the work.   Patronizing our sponsors helps us greatly so thank you in advance.   Evolution Security is Eric Davis, Aaron Davis and Brian Schilt; specializing in self-protection education, defensive pistol and carbine, consulting, and weapons based grappling.  Their mission is to help those serious about protecting themselves and their loved ones, become more capable though filtered information, recommended study, and highlighting their mentors who are the best in the field.   In addition, Eric and Aaron (twins) are musicians keeping with Musashi's adage that martial artist should focus on art outside of the martial (bumper music recorded by the brothers). 

063 Mobility Myths(With Brayden from The Strength Co.) (0:00) - Intro (0:55) - The youngest Starting Strength coach ever. (3:14) - What's Brayden's best squat / bench / deadlift / overhead press? (5:13) - Is everyone doing mobility wrong? (7:52) - Athlean X. (9:44) - Googling "how to improve my squat depth"? (11:10) - How much your squat will go up when you stop worrying about "mobility". (11:58) - Isn't mobility useful for other things? (13:44) - 1+1=2? (15:02) - The evidence just isn't there to support the use of mobility drills. (16:18) - The time cost of doing mobility drills. (17:38) - How "supple" do you really think you need to be in order to squat? (19:32) - Cooking with adhesions. (21:36) - So many people fall for mobility myths (even us). (23:21) - People making up problems out of nothing. (25:14) - Is mobility preventative towards injury? (28:38) - What can people do if they have mobility troubles during exercise? (31:58) - What do I do if I still can't squat deep enough? (36:16) - Do popular social media trainers know that they are misinformed? (40:07) - Why does Mark Rippetoe reject RPE? (43:11) - Other types of mobility exercises. (45:25) - Properly warming up before you train. (49:20) - You need to stretch or you will be messed up when you get older (*eye roll) (52:48) - We killed mobility. (53:41) - Brayden & Strength Co - social media / & contact info. (54:23) - Toronto, eh. (55:16) - Outro. My Social Media & Contact Info: Email: jonnyreps@gmail.com Website: Jonnyrepsfitness.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonny_reps_fitness/ Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/jonnyrepsfitness/ Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/jonny_reps YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvkLTHoZ5cLVOSk3D4VR3ww Tik Tok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSbuB4Tg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-repasch-b603b7a4 Brayden & The Strength Co: The Strength Co. on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@thestrengthco Brayden on Instagram: https://instagram.com/wholelottalifting The Strength Co. Website: https://www.thestrength.co/costa-mesa-gym/

Ray Gillenwater talks with the head coach of Starting Strength Katy, Josh Wells, about growing up around Mark Rippetoe and how he found Wichita Falls Athletic Club. 02:31 - Current Olympic lifting PRs 05:40 - How Josh came across WFAC 21:20 - Mentorship or advice from Rip 29:14 - Opening Starting Strength Houston 39:48 - Case study sneak peek 45:59 - Gaining weight for a better physique 50:44 - Josh is accepting online clients 51:28 - Ending on a Chase story

Andy Baker Co-Authored Practical Programming for Strength Training and The Barbell Prescription: Strength Training for Life After 40 with the Founder of Starting Strength, Mark Rippetoe. He is a Starting Strength Coach and the Owner of Baker Personal Training in Kingwood, Texas. He's been a professional strength coach for over 17 years and is considered one of the leaders in the industry for his academic and practical contributions to the field of strength training. Ray and Andy sit down to discuss the differences between strength training and bodybuilding. 02:08 - Definitions of bodybuilding, strengthlifting, powerlifting, etc. 09:40 - How a young man improves his physique 24:10 - Some advice to build base strength 41:02 - Three contributing factors to physique 50:20 - Don't do more, do better 53:15 - Where does the NLP end and what's next 1:05:00 - Drug use in sports 1:15:30 - Therapeutic doses of TRT 1:23:40 - In summary, if you are a young man and aren't already strong, get strong

Mark Rippetoe and Dr. Keith Smith talk about the driving factors in healthcare, Medicare, and free market healthcare as an alternative. 0:54 Dr. Keith Smith 1:29 What is the Surgery Center Of Oklahoma? 4:32 Prices Are Hidden By Design 9:34 Government Is The Problem 14:41 Why Was Medicare implemented? 18:14 The Alternatives 20:46 Commodity And Service 24:44 When Did It Start? Is It Necessary? 29:46 The Driving Factor In Healthcare 33:40 More About The Surgery Center Of Oklahoma 35:24 The Thought Process Of The Federal Government 37:20 Free Market Healthcare Organization 38:26 Rip's Experience With Surgery Billing 44:24 Expansion 52:06 Capacity

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In this episode, we talk about the challenging, energizing, and sometimes unpleasant things we do to make our bodies (and minds) do more tomorrow than we can today.Here's a link to an interview with the author of Charles's favorite weight training book, "Starting Strength", Mark Rippetoe...Intro to Barbell Training With Mark Rippetoe | Art of ManlinessSupport the show

Coach D and Coach Trent are back (finally) with a new episode, broadcasting from THE Wichita Falls Athletic Club, the home of Mark Rippetoe and the birthplace of the Starting Strength model. Today they discuss the role of the power clean for the Masters lifter -- should you be doing it? Should you skip it? What's the point anyway?   While the power clean is a very useful tool for the young athlete, especially in power-based sports such as football, hockey, or track and field sports, it's application to real life for the older lifter is less obvious. Basically, the clean is a fairly simple tool for the lifter to train power, which is a derivative of force production (strength). By training for power, a Masters lifter can not only improve his performance in sport, he can also improve and preserve his coordination, speed, and agility. These other physical skills tend to decline drastically with age unless you do something. Sports may not be in the cards for these lifters, so controlled gym movements such as the power clean can be a useful way of addressing these physical skills without the unpredictable nature of doing explosive sports.   Andy Baker, a fellow SSC, co-author of Practical Programming and The Barbell Prescription, has also spoken at length about dynamic effort training -- adapted from Westside's conjugate method -- can be effectively used to increase power using the basic compound lifts.   Baker Barbell Podcast on Dynamic Effort training: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/baker-barbell-podcast/id1607570442?i=1000555789213     Email us: info@40fit.com   Connect with 40fit Radio 40fit website Facebook 40fit Nation 40fit Radio on Instagram

We are available for online coaching: https://www.melbournestrengthculture.com/coaching-services 0:00 Number 1 in the hearts, number 1 in the charts 0:36 Sydney Clout Tour 6:11 USAPL Australia's first comp 12:17 The future of Strength Culture powerlifting comps 18:00 BodyBuilding.com MISC 22:26 How Didier found Strength Culture 25:22 What happened to Furious Pete? 27:50 The blog era of internet S+C 34:02 Max out every week for gains 41:20 Shouts out Super Dad Joe 42:24 Mark Rippetoe and a gallon of milk 44:00 Scooby1961 44:42 Louie Simmons and conjugate 45:50 AthleanX 46:11 Glenn Pendlay, Donny Shankle, Cal Strength 47:33 Mike Chang 6 pack Shortcuts 48:50 Jim Wendler, 5,3,1, Lee Taft and speed training 53:37 Elliott Hulse, Silent Mike 56:20 Steady hand cam from Donny Follow Us On: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@melbournestrengthculture Instagram: ➽ Strength Culture - www.instagram.com/melbournestrengthculture ➽ Jamie S - www.instagram.com/j.smith.culture ➽ Charlie - www.instagram.com/quantum_lifting ➽ Jamie B - www.instagram.com/jamiebouz ➽ Didier - www.instagram.com/didiervassou

In This Episode, We Get Tactical About: - Every Day You Don't Workout Someone Else Does - Strong People Are Harder to Kill - The Importance of Strength Training for Longevity - Being Ready and Reliable When You're Needed   Resources + Links:   Connect with Kristofor on Instagram | @team_healey   How can Kristofor help you become the first responder for your family? Become an Indispensable Man   Shoot us a message on Instagram with your biggest takeaway @team_healey Show Notes: For our Monday Mindset this week we discuss the importance of strength training.    Two things have stayed with me since my first law enforcement academy.    The first was a U.S. Marshals poster on the wall of the gym that featured a prisoner doing lat pull downs. It read: “Every day you don't work out someone else does! Stay fit!”   The second was a banner on the wall in the weight room with a Mark Rippetoe quote across it that read: “Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.”   I can't begin to tell you how much external motivation I've drawn from those two posters over the years, especially the second.    I want to win the fight.  I want to go home to my family.  I need to be harder to kill. I want to be more useful.  I should probably work out.    You should too. 

Mark Rippetoe and Dr. Keith Nichols from Tier 1 Health and Wellness discuss testosterone replacement therapy, best practices, and common misconceptions. 00:34 Dr. Keith Nichols 01:32 Dropping testosterone levels 08:58 Treating the numbers, not the symptoms 15:06 Treating people 20:17 Prostate cancer fears 32:57 How does Dr. Nichols apply HRT? 39:57 Making hormones easy to understand 51:21 The “thick blood” misconception 1:04:34 Too much testosterone 1:13:51 Testing for estrogen 1:15:46 Treating different types of patients

Top 10 Books About Strength Training: 10. “The Weightlifting Encyclopedia: A Guide to World Class Performance” by Arthur J. Drechsler 9. “Supertraining” by Mel C. Siff and Yuri Verkhoshansky 8. “The Westside Barbell Book of Methods” by Louie Simmons 7. “Science and Practice of Strength Training” by Vladimir Zatsiorsky and William J. Kraemer 6. “Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training” by Tudor O. Bompa and Carlo A. Buzzichelli 5. “Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding” by Arnold Schwarzenegger 4. “Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning” by G. Gregory Haff and N. Travis Tripplet 3. “Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training” by Mark Rippetoe 2. “Brawn: Bodybuilding for the Drug-Free and Genetically Typical” by Stuart McRobert 1. “Practical Programming for Strength Training” by Mark Rippetoe and Andy Baker

Seventh episode of the "Theory of Strength Training" series. These are some of the recommended readings if you want to learn more about this subject: “Supertraining” by Mel C. Siff and Yuri Verkhoshansky “The Westside Barbell Book of Methods” by Louie Simmons “Science and Practice of Strength Training” by Vladimir Zatsiorsky and William J. Kraemer “Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training” by Tudor O. Bompa and Carlo A. Buzzichelli “Practical Programming for Strength Training” by Mark Rippetoe and Andy Baker “ACSM's Resources for the Personal Trainer” “Ultimate Bodybuilding” by Joe Weider

Fourth episode of the "Theory of Strength Training" series. These are some of the recommended readings if you want to learn more about this subject: “Supertraining” by Mel C. Siff and Yuri Verkhoshansky “Science and Practice of Strength Training” by Vladimir Zatsiorsky and William J. Kraemer “Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training” by Tudor O. Bompa and Carlo A. Buzzichelli “Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning” by G. Gregory Haff and N. Travis Tripplet “Practical Programming for Strength Training” by Mark Rippetoe and Andy Baker

Much ink has been spilled about the so-called novice linear progression, the basic starter program for new lifters outlined in Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength Basic Barbell Training 3rd Edition as well Practical Programming for Strength Training (co-written by Andy Baker). And as Dan points out, the novice linear progression contains everything you really need to know about programming -- a series of submaximal yet challenging workouts (progressive overload) accumulated over time will yield lasting strength adaptations.   The same is true of intermediate programming, however the landscape looks much different. There is a brief initial phase sometimes referred to as "early intermediate," in which a lifter can set weekly PR's. That phase does not last long, however, and soon the lifter finds himself frequently retreading the same weights and rep ranges before a PR can be found. This is normal, Andy reminds us, and the focus of training must change to reflect the fact that all-time PR's won't happen frequently anymore.   Instead, Andy says, we should focus on moving our floor up over time. Every lifter has a floor and a ceiling for each lift. Lifters, especially powerlifters, typically think of their ceiling as their all-time PR, usually set at a meet or during a phase in their training in which they have peaked for maximum 1RM performance. While we do want those 1RM's to move up over time, it's impossible for a lifter to stay peaked for more than a very short period of time -- a week at most. Instead, intermediate lifters can work to increase their floor, the amount of weight they can lift on their worst day, as a more reliably and sustainable measure of progress.   Andy Baker Blog: www.AndyBaker.com IG: @bakerbarbell Owner of Kingwood Strength & Conditioning Co-author of Practical Programming for Strength Training Co-author of The Barbell Prescription: Strength Training for Life After 40   Dan Flanick IG: @coachdanflanick Gym: https://www.skaneatelesstrength.com

Andy and Dan discuss the role of barbell training for athletes in sports ranging from power-based contact sports (football, hockey) to agility and high kill sports (baseball, soccer, golf). As detailed in Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training by Mark Rippetoe, strength is the basis of all human performance. Thus, getting an athlete stronger will have a positive impact, usually a big impact, on their performance.   Nevertheless, the athlete is NOT a powerlifter or weightlifter. Their sport doesn't consist of lifting barbells. Therefore, their training probably won't look much like the powerlifter's training beyond the novice phase of programming. After the basic barbell movements have been introduced, there may be sport-specific needs for variants of the big lifts as well as accessories.  Andy and Dan break down how you can better use barbells to train sport athletes.   Andy Baker Blog: www.AndyBaker.com IG: @bakerbarbell Owner of Kingwood Strength & Conditioning Co-author of Practical Programming for Strength Training Co-author of The Barbell Prescription: Strength Training for Life After 40   Dan Flanick IG: @coachdanflanick Gym: https://www.skaneatelesstrength.com

Big Phil Stevens joins us for this one to discuss his troubadour lifting life including stops with T-Nation, Mark Rippetoe, Olympic weightlifters, Jim Wendler, Jesse Burdick, and Iron Radio. He's the co-host of one of the very few “fitness” podcasts that's been at it longer than us. The Strength Co: https://www.thestrength.co/ Swiss Link: https://www.swisslink.com and use code MASS to save 15% Hybrid Performance Method: https://www.hybridperformancemethod.com/ MASS to save 5% on all training & nutrition Fusion Sports Performance: https://www.fusionsp.net/ MASS to save 20% on all FSP supplements Spud Inc: https://www.spud-inc-straps.com/ Texas Power Bars: https://www.texaspowerbars.com/

Mark Rippetoe and Scott Davison talk about Scott's experience as an Air Force pilot flying B-52s during the Cold War. 00:00 Introduction 00:45 Comments from the Haters! 04:19 Back to Scott Davison 08:05 Pilot training 11:00 Elephant or truck? 13:58 The B-52 18:56 Wet wings 21:45 Like flying a building 22:56 Missions - 41,000 to 200 ft 26:45 "Bomb your own base" program 31:45 Carpet bombing 34:56 Nuclear weapons 38:09 On alert

In this episode, Meagan and Peter are sharing their top ten reads from 2021! Meagan's top ten: 10. The Space between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson https://bit.ly/3luDaBe 9. Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby https://bit.ly/3poAtlH 8. You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey by Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar https://bit.ly/3oeAdqe 7. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse https://bit.ly/31nqmFV 6. Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade https://bit.ly/3IbuRUN 5. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik https://bit.ly/3IhJUME 4. You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria https://bit.ly/31ofSGb 3. Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert https://bit.ly/3ogrRye 2. In That Endlessness, Our End by Gemma Files https://bit.ly/3xNiIjX 1. Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert https://bit.ly/3En5EV4 Peter's top ten: 10. Tenements, Towers, and Trash by Julia Wertz (Request through Prospector or ILL) 9. Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training by Mark Rippetoe https://bit.ly/31fQB1b 8. Sentient by Jeff Lemire https://bit.ly/3GcKusX 7. Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier https://bit.ly/3dkYFzL 6. Nudes by Elle Nash (Request through Prospector or ILL) 5. Paradox Twins by Joshua Chaplinsky (Request through Prospector or ILL) 4. It Came from Ohio by RL Stine https://bit.ly/3luaUyF 3. Afterlift by Chip Zdarsky https://bit.ly/3rwYWs2 2. Stillwater by Chip Zdarsky https://bit.ly/3EvsxW4 1. Sexcastle by Kyle Starks https://bit.ly/3lvQ81E

In episode 51, we update our impressions of Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength program.After one month on Starting Strength, hosts Nick and Stephen each rate the program on the following criteria:MotivationSustainabilityWork ImpactFun FactorResultsLinks:Instagram: @workingmansweightliftingDiscord: discord.workingmansweightlifting.comWebsite: www.workingmansweightlifting.comMerch: shop.workingmansweightlifting.comSupport the show: support.workingmansweightlifting.comRecommended gear and supplements: links.workingmansweightlifting.comSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wmweightlifting)

In episode 48, we give our first impressions of Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength program.After two weeks on Starting Strength, hosts Nick and Stephen each rate the program on the following criteria:MotivationSustainabilityWork ImpactFun FactorResultsLinks:Instagram: @workingmansweightliftingDiscord: discord.workingmansweightlifting.comWebsite: www.workingmansweightlifting.comMerch: shop.workingmansweightlifting.comSupport the show: support.workingmansweightlifting.comRecommended gear and supplements: links.workingmansweightlifting.comSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wmweightlifting)

In this episode we discuss Mark Rippetoe's foundational book and program, Starting Strength.  This is a bedrock training program with a host of potential benefits, particularly for those who may just be getting an introduction to barbell training. We discuss the key elements of the book as well as our own thoughts on this fantastic training program. Remember, if you have any questions or comments, or topic ideas you'd like to hear discussed in future episodes, please feel free to reach out to us at kinesiologycorner@gmail.com Show Notes: (02:20) - What we're learning about (12:15) - Intro to Starting Strength (19:43) - The importance of strength (21:54) - Are barbells > everything? (35:07) - The Squat (50:50) - The Deadlift (54:53) - The Bench Press (01:01:44) - Overhead Press (01:05:18) - The Power Clean (01:06:43) - Programming (01:25:34) - Closing Thoughts We hope you enjoy the discussion and find some items here that will benefit your own training! Extreme Energy by MusicToday80: https://soundcloud.com/musictoday80/r... Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Music provided by Free Vibes: https://goo.gl/NkGhTg

In today's episode I sit down with Brian Puckett, the head strength coach at D1 Murray State. After hearing about Brian's journey in the field of strength and conditioning, we dive head first into talking about mastering the basics. This was a conversation I needed to hear, and I think it's a great reminder for so many of us. A big theme in today's episode was to master the things that have stood the test of time. No new cleanse, exercise program, or diet plan is going to magically bring us wellness. What will is hard work and consistency with the fundamentals or basics. We unpack this more in this episode. I strongly recommend you listen to the end of this one as it just gets better and better! Make sure to follow Brian on Instagram @puckett_strength. Also, check out the two books he mentioned: Starting Strength and Practical Programming by Mark Rippetoe.

What does Borat, bologna and Mark Rippetoe have in common? Tune in to find out. ——   Thank you for your continued support, please let us know what you'd like to hear us talk about in future episodes and be sure to check our website out for the free Nutrition Basics ebook and Foundation Beginner's Program.   www.IronWillCollective.com/programs   ——   The Iron Will Collective is a growing group of people who believe in training intelligently not just for aesthetics but also health and longevity. No quick fixes or nonsense bro-science - just info that has been gathered while working in the field and from a wide range of experienced coaches.   Our goal is to help teach people not just the basics on how to train their body and mind, but to also dive deep into the topics that will help build and sustain a meaningful life.   Subscribe to the IRON WILL COLLECTIVE, new videos and podcasts every week.   Facebook: Facebook.com/ironwillcollective Instagram: @ironwillcollective Twitter: @ironwillaz   All information provided by the Iron Will Collective is of a general nature and is furnished only for educational/entertainment purposes only. No information is to be taken as medical or other health advice pertaining to any individual specific health or medical condition. You agree that use of this information is at your own risk and hold the Iron Will Collective harmless from any and all assets, liabilities, injuries or damages resulting from any and all claims.

“Training with barbells is the fastest way for a guy to improve his physical appearance.” Mark Rippetoe has been a gym owner / personal trainer since 1984 and he's going to show you how to make improvements in your confidence and physicality so success with girls happens sooner.MORE RESOURCES Visit Mark's Website: https://startingstrength.com/HOOKED Video Masterclass: https://getherhooked.com/Mastermind Coaching: http://www.coachedbytripp.com/The Irresistible Academy: http://trippadvice.com/academy/Get my book Magnetic: https://trippadvice.com/bookYoutube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/trippadvice Leave a voicemail: 323-432-0025SEE WHAT I'M UP TOOn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trippadvice/On Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrippAdviceOn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrippAdvice/

As always this episode is jammed packed with helpful training strategies for your next obstacle course race.   In this episode I have a great interview with Helene Dumais from Platinum Rig Obstacle Relay Race World Championship.  This is an incredibly unique race and Helene fills us in with all the details.  To register or learn more check out the links section below.   In the inside Mike's mind segment I go over my thoughts in strength training for OCR.  Mark Rippetoe has a great quote, "Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and are more useful in general."  This is a comical quote but some truth to it.  We know that strength is important for your training.  But how strong do you need to be and are you even doing strength training?  I give my insights here.   In my research review I discuss the concept of Apnea, or breath holds, in training.  This study specifically looked at breath holding as part of a warm up, but I give insight on how you can apply this to your training, especially when dealing with races at altitude.   And finally I have on Tony Matesi, who just released his book, Legend of the Death Race.  As a lifelong athlete, Tony prioritizes health and wellbeing above all else and created the blog “The Legend of the Death Race” as a resource for Obstacle Race Training. Tony constantly seeks the next challenge and has competed at elite levels in Tae Kwon Do; gymnastics; competitive cheerleading; obstacle, endurance, and adventure racing; Ultramarathons; and spent ten years on stage performing as a lead ballet dancer in the Chicago Festival Ballet rendition of the Nutcracker. He has competed in three Spartan Death Races, placed 3rd at the San Diego Alpha Warrior, made it to the City Finals on American Ninja Warrior, created a Death Race training program, helped open the gym REACH Fieldhouse in Chicago, launched Spartan Endurance Internationally and brought the ultramarathon event SISU 24 Ultra to the Pacific Northwest.  In this interview Tony shares his insight on training for ultra distance events from both the physical aspect and mental.  He stressed the importance of developing relationships while racing versus being the long wolf.   He also explains how a key idea of the Nintendo game, The Legend of Zelda, can be applied to every day life.   All this plus much more... Full show notes:  www.ocrunderground.com/episode-69  

On this week's episode Joe answers the following questions: 1) Where do you see the fitness industry going in 10 years? 2) How to look cool in the gym? 3) Mark Rippetoe or Louie Simmons vs Joe D. [Who's training style is the best?] 4) Workout recommendations for busy dads 5) Any new thoughts on food sensitivity tests? 6) What's the most underrated trait of a great coach? 7) How do you navigate through the mental aspects of dealing w/ your personal injuries? 8) What form of marketing helped put you over the top when you first started out? 9) Should trainers have a set assessment for new clients? If so, what exercises? 10) Why do new clients need to master bodyweight squats before adding weight? 11) What's your opinion on sprinting in the sand? 12) Day after football game routine for recovery 13) Any tips for a S&C coach starting a podcast on sports & fitness? *For Show Notes & Timestamps goto www.IndustrialStrengthShow.com *To register for September's CPPS Certification Course at the WWE Performance Center goto www.CPPScoaches.com/schedule

0:01:44 Introduce Merrill Winston - Check out TCE's previous episode with Merrill 0:01:47 Introduce Jim Moore - Check out The Daily BA's video The Field Didn't Change... The Profession Didn't Change... I Changed w/ Jim Moore 0:01:50 Topic: Pliance, Tracking, Rule-Governed Behavior and how this relates to Authority and Power 0:02:05 For additional reading on Pliance and Tracking check out Hayes & Wilson (1993) Some applied implications of a contemporary behavior-analytic account of verbal events 0:02:05 For additional reading on Pliance and Tracking check out Rule-governed behavior: Cognition, contingencies, and instructional control by Steven Hayes 0:02:05 For additional reading on Pliance and Tracking check out Kissi et al. (2017) A systematic review of pliance, tracking, and augmenting 0:03:15 Check out Jordan Belisle's research contributions and publications 0:08:30 Topic Change: How Pliance has affected the divide between academia and practitioners 0:09:40 Check out David Barlow's research contributions and publications 0:12:35 Check out the BACB's stats on the number of practitioners obtaining certification since 1999 0:17:55 Topic Change: Merrill and Jim talk about sources of bias based on individual preferences and rules 0:19:55 Check out Starting Strength's website for further information on Mark Rippetoe 0:26:25 Check out Finding the philosophical core: A review of Stephen C. Pepper's World Hypotheses: A Study in Evidence by Steve Hayes, Linda Hayes, and Hayne Reese (1988) 0:28:00 Check out Brian Iwata's research contributions and publications 0:28:05 Check out Mark Durand's research contributions and publications 0:34:30 Check out The Daily BA's video I Didn't Know Her Circumstances with Pat Friman 0:37:10 Check out the Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Case Against Freedom with B. F. Skinner 0:38:25 Check out Skinner's Verbal Behavior (1957) 0:40:08 Check out Skinner's About Behaviorism (1976) 0:41:35 Check out a list of Skinner's contributions and publications 0:41:40 Check out Steven Hayes' contributions and publications 0:43:38 Check out Timothy Vollmer's contributions and publications 0:44:35 Check out Reinforcement magnitude and the inhibiting effect of reinforcement by Jack Michael (1979) 0:44:50 Check out William Baum's contributions and publications 0:51:08 For additional reading on Green's Adjusting-Amount and Adjusting-Delay Procedures check out Do adjusting-amount and adjusting-delay procedures produce equivalent estimates of subjective value in pigeons? by Green et al. (2007) 1:05:10 Check out Rob Wolff's website for further information 1:06:13 For additional information on the future of behavioral science and evolutionary science check out the video Evolution and Contextual Behavioral Science Dialogue Between the Editors 1:06:40 For an example of Skinner's early work reflecting on biogenetics check out The phylogeny and ontogeny of behavior 1:08:10 Topic Change: The importance of collaborating within behavior analysis and with other sciences in order to move forward 1:10:05 Check out Mark Dixon's contributions and publications 1:10:20 Check out The Daily BA's video Threats to Behavior Analysis w/ Hank Schlinger 1:13:25 Check out Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity 1:18:15 For more information on PEAK check out their website: https://www.peak2aba.com/ 1:22:05 Check out the winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1949 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thecontroversialexchange/message

An interview with Adam Wathan, co-creator of the Tailwind CSS library and author and video producer. Adamwathan.me Test-Driven Laravel Refactoring to Collections Advanced Vue Component Design Tailwind CSS Alberta Oil Sands Reaper Conestoga College Vehikl Desire2Learn Tighten Nitpick CI Adam Wathan's $100k product launch Full-Stack Radio Mark Rippetoe - Starting Strength 5/3/1 Video of Adam lifting tons of weight 5/3/1 calculator Matt's WeightXReps Training Journal Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C# Adam on Twitter Refactoring UI Editing sponsored by Larajobs Transcription sponsored by Tighten Matt Stauffer: Welcome back to the Laravel podcast, season three. Today we're talking to Adam Wathan; author, video maker, teacher of the things, power lifter. Stay tuned. Matt Stauffer: All right, welcome back to the Laravel podcast, season three. This is the version of the Laravel podcast where we get to know less about tech and more about the people behind the tech, and today my guest is none other than Adam Wathan who has taught us all about testing, collections, view, components and many other things. One of things I love about Adam is that he's never satisfied with what's happening around him and he's always taking in stuff from other places, and we'll talk about this more probably later in the podcast, but when I describe Adam to other people, I say he's the guy who basically finds what's good everywhere else and brings it to us in the Laravel world. So if you haven't heard of Adam, my mind is blown. You should go consume everything he's ever made; it's all gold. I will say to some of y'all that his name is pronounced Wa-than, right? That's right? Adam Wathan: Yeah, you got it. Matt Stauffer: Wa-than. Not Way-thin, not Way-than. I'm trying to think about other things I've heard, but Adam Wathan. So Adam, say hi to the people, and the first question I always ask everybody is when you meet somebody in the grocery store how do you introduce yourself? How do you tell them what you do? Adam Wathan: Cool. Yeah, so thanks for having me on. I'm Adam. I usually explain ... It depends on what people ask, because some people ask like what do you do? I say I'm a software developer, although I don't actually get paid to write code, I get paid to teach people about code. So I either describe myself as a software developer who creates courses and e-books and training products for other software developers who are looking to kind of level up. So that's kind of the shortest version that I try and give to people that usually is enough that they kind of either are interested in it and ask me more questions or aren't interested and don't want to hear anymore. Matt Stauffer: Yeah, so I'm already going to cheat a little because I want to ask one little thing about your motivation that I've been curious about for a while and hopefully they'll still come out when we talk about your background but, you know, you're really smart guy, you learn a lot of stuff, but you're also a teacher and you also have like marketing kind of like sensibility, and you just gave an elevator pitch that would make someone who doesn't even understand programming want to go sign up for your product and I don't think that that's really common for a lot of us to know how to talk about it that well, so ... And if this is going to come out later that's cool, but do you have a sense for where your ability to kind of understand how to market something and how to ... And you talk a lot about how to do it in a non-skeezy way, but where did that come from? Is that something you had to work on, or do you feel like you've got some experience that's kind of taught you that? Adam Wathan: That's a good question and I don't think I have a great answer for it. I think I've always just really liked creating things that I was proud of and putting them out into the world with enthusiasm and I think that's been kind of like the simplest version of how I have always tried to share what I've been working on and then I think with the marketing stuff too, I guess I just care just as much about the quality of that as I do about everything I do. I just really like to make everything I do as good as I possibly can and that comes down to even things like, you know, landing pages and how things look on stuff like that. To me, the marketing is a product too and I want it to be good and I want to be proud of it, so it's just something that I just put a lot of effort into I guess the same way I would with something else. Matt Stauffer: Yeah, I mean, I tell this story to people all the time, but when you first joined Tighten, one of the things we were talking about was working on some open source projects together, and we immediately found a conflict in our ways of working where I was like, so what I do with this thing Symposium is I figure out a feature and I spit out the feature as fast as possible and then I move on to the next feature, and you're like what I do is I try to figure out exactly the best way to do this feature and I ponder on it and I make plans and I make diagrams and I get it exactly right so people will really get their needs met and then and only then do I actually build out a feature. Matt Stauffer: And we kind of had this like little head butt moment, and I think that I've kind of ... I would say I've shifted to your way of thinking, but I've been influenced by it a lot. Do you have a sense for where your kind of desire for excellence ... I think you were just talking about like where that comes from, is that just a personality trait? Is that something from your family, and what's that ... Where does that come from? Adam Wathan: I think it's just a personality trait. I've been like that with basically everything that I've ever been interested in my entire life. Like I would sit and play guitar and play the exact same seven notes for four hours straight until I played them perfectly, you know what I mean? So I think I just get a little bit obsessive over the sorts of things that I get interested in. Matt Stauffer: Yeah, I just want to get really good at it. All right, well, I'm sure we'll dip into the stuff a little bit more, but I do want to make sure that I actually have the space for your back story. So the second question I always ask everybody is, where was it that you ... Or what was the context in which you first had interactions with a computer? How old were you and kind of what was your interaction like at that point? Adam Wathan: Yeah, so I have sort of conflicting memories for a lot of some of the stuff. Not necessarily conflicting, but sometimes I have a hard time figuring out like what the timeline was, but some of my earliest memories of working with computers, probably the earliest one that I can think of. is when I was in grade ... It must have been probably grade two, maybe grade three, but I had this librarian at my school who worked with like some of the gifted kids to do little projects and stuff and me and him were working on the super old Mac that we had at the ... It was new at the time I'm sure, right, but like my memory of it's like the old school Mac where everything's black and white and stuff like that. Using hypercard to make this little project we went around and it was actually pretty cool. Adam Wathan: We got to like drive around the neighborhood and I got to like ask questions like different business owners about things and we put together this like little presentation in hypercard, and that's probably like my earliest memory of working with a computer and we got a computer in my family when I was pretty young too, probably grade four or grade five. It was just like kind of your standard ... It was like an Acer or Compaq PC or something with four megs of RAM and, you know, I can't even think, a 500 megabyte hard drive, and we got- Matt Stauffer: Yeah, a 486 or something like that. Adam Wathan: Like our internet a couple years later. Yeah, it was a 486 and I used to dick around on that, you know, looking up game tutorials for my Sega Genesis at GameFacts.com and stuff like that and- Matt Stauffer: What's the best game on the Genesis? What's your favorite, do you remember? Adam Wathan: Favorite Genesis game. I used to play the hockey games a lot. That was probably what I got- Matt Stauffer: You're so Canadian. Adam Wathan: The most fun out of. The funny thing is like I'm not super into hockey, but those were just the most fun like multiplayer games that you could play. That and like Mortal Combat and Street Fighter. Matt Stauffer: Yeah, of course. Adam Wathan: And all the classics. I didn't do much of the single player stuff, just mostly hanging out with friends and playing. Matt Stauffer: No Sonic and Knuckles and things like that? Adam Wathan: I did play Sonic, but I wouldn't say like I have, you know, nostalgic memories about how much I loved that game or whatever. It was a fun game but, yeah. Matt Stauffer: Yeah, I feel like not a lot of people have the same level of memories of Sonic as they did at Mario. I just never quite connected in the same way. Adam Wathan: No, Mario definitely has a more special place in people's hearts, I think. Matt Stauffer: Yeah, you actually got into this a little bit, but my next question is going to be kind of what was your first exposure to the internet? So was that primarily it at least at the start? Adam Wathan: I'm not sure if it would have been at school or at home, but yeah, it would have been most of the time that I spent on the internet would have been at my home desktop computer on our 14.4 connections we used to use. Matt Stauffer: Yeah. So when you were in middle school and high school, what do you think you wanted to do with your life? Did you know? Adam Wathan: I had some conflicting thoughts, so at one point when I was a kid I wanted to be a cartoonist, that was my dream actually. Matt Stauffer: I had no idea. Adam Wathan: I used to draw all the time and I used to like ... You know how you'd have like the book fairs at school, I don't know if you had those in the States. Matt Stauffer: Yeah yeah, Scholastic. We had them here. Adam Wathan: The Scholastic Book Fairs. Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: I'd always be ordering like the how to draw this or the how to draw that books and I never got really good at it, but it was fun and then eventually I got into like playing guitar and stuff like that and I wanted to be like an audio engineer, but I also wanted to be a programmer and I really liked my programming classes in high school, so I ended up going to university for computer science, but I also considered going to college for music industry arts, which is a program that actually Steve Schoger, who some people might know actually did go to at the college that I used to go to. Matt Stauffer: Oh, he did? Adam Wathan: But I decided against it because it just didn't seem like a profitable career path, so I eventually chose computer science. Matt Stauffer: So you had programming classes in high school. Was this Java or C++ or what kind of stuff were you guys doing there? Adam Wathan: Let me think. So I think we ... I don't think we had computer programming classes 'till like grade 10 and we did a lot of like Pascal and we did C, and we did Java and then we have a web one which was later, which was kind of weird because the Java stuff was ... Even the Java stuff isn't ... When I think back to the fact that we did Java in high school, I don't remember doing any of the stuff that I know about Java now. Like I didn't know what object oriented programming was when I came out of high school, even though Java is an object oriented language. We just would write procedural code in like our main- Matt Stauffer: Good job, yeah. Adam Wathan: Java file or whatever, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: And stuff like that, but yeah. Matt Stauffer: What made you choose those classes? Adam Wathan: I think I just thought it was really fun to be able to make the computer do stuff. Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: So I remember like one of my earliest memories of programming actually is when I was a kid I was like super obsessed with pro wrestling, that was like my thing. And I used to download all these like wrestling simulators so you could like ... It's so funny because they weren't ... they're not like games, right? They're like you create characters, you choose their move sets, you give them the statistics and stuff and then you like run simulations and it would spit out like texts, like this guy punched this guy, then this guy powerbombs this guy- Matt Stauffer: Right, and you're not actually controlling what they did, right? Adam Wathan: No, no, no. It's just a computer simulation based on random events- Matt Stauffer: That's fascinating. Adam Wathan: As well as like, you know, the statistics and attributes of the different wrestlers. There's a couple different programs that you could use to do that and I was always looking for different ones to test them out, and then one day I stumbled upon a tutorial online that was like make your own wrestling simulator in QBasic. Matt Stauffer: Oh, nice. QBasic, yes. Adam Wathan: And I was like, okay. And that was my first exposure to QBasic. I followed the tutorial and got everything set up and I didn't know how to like do random stuff or anything like that, so I never got very far with it. It was all just very like ... It was not like conditional logic or anything, you would just do this, this, this. Matt Stauffer: It just takes input- Adam Wathan: I couldn't figure out how to make it do exactly what the other things are doing, but I could make the computer do stuff, and that kind of got me interested in the whole QBasic programming stuff and then I just started looking into more like QBasic tutorials and finding out stuff that you could do, and I remember getting really into ... I don't think I'll ever remember the actual name of it. I found a site that I think might have been it, which is Pete's QBasic tutorials, which I don't know if that was the site for sure, but some of the content looked really familiar, but it had lots of tutorials on like making like tile scrolling RPG engines in QBasic and stuff and- Matt Stauffer: What? Adam Wathan: Where you could create like little sprite characters and you'd make these like 20 pixel by 20 pixel squares and lay them all out and make it scroll as you use the keyboard and stuff like that. So one summer I had this dream of making an RPG, which of course never even remotely happened, but I had a lot of fun just hacking around on the computer getting it to render this stuff and do stuff like that. So I think that's where I really got excited about programming because I don't know if I have a specific passion for programming more than anything else, but it was just like a really perfect kind of platform for just doing creative things, you know what I mean, and making stuff. It's the most like powerful tool for just like making interesting things that I know of so far, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: So I think that's what kind of got me into that. So I did a bunch of QBasic stuff messing around with that and eventually I started making my own little websites on Geocities an Angelfire and stuff like that and yeah, I've kind of been doing that ever since, so. Matt Stauffer: Yeah, I was thinking about how creation was definitely a trend for you. I mean between music creation, you know, as a guitarist and music production, you know, and the art and everything like this is it's wanting to make things happen and figure out what the tools are, so it's interesting hearing you say, you know, it's the most powerful tool that you can use for that. Adam Wathan: Yeah. Matt Stauffer: Do you ever draw still? Adam Wathan: No, not at all. Matt Stauffer: Do you have any of your old drawings anywhere? Adam Wathan: I might. My parents just sold their house and gave me a big box of like crap lying around that was mine. Matt Stauffer: You got to find something, man. Adam Wathan: I think there's a couple sketchbooks in there so I should maybe- Matt Stauffer: That would be amazing. Adam Wathan: Dig through those. Matt Stauffer: Please. Okay, so you went off to school for computer science and did you have a sense ... Did you have any shifts during school with what kind of aspect of CS that you were interested in or if ... And yes or no, what did you think you were going to do afterwards? Adam Wathan: Yeah, so I actually only went to the university for a single semester, so I did the first semester a bunch of the classes I did find fun like the ones that were direct programming, so we had like a C class where we'd basically get these weekly kind of projects that we have to work on where just have to go through a bunch of problems to get the computer to do that stuff, and that was the stuff that I was really interested in and really excited about, but then we also had classes that weren't as interesting, like digital fundamentals and stuff related to more like computer engineering sides of stuff which is interesting, but it didn't get me excited and want to work on it. Adam Wathan: That stuff was like a chore, and at the time I was also playing in a band and we ... That was all I wanted to do. Like we were playing shows and recording demos and stuff like that, so the computer stuff was not really a big focus for me at the time and I was commuting to school which was about a 45 minute drive away and living at home, so I didn't really get like embedded into the sort of university community that was there. Adam Wathan: So I didn't really like make any friends or meet anyone, I was only there for classes and that was it. So it was really hard for me to sort of, you know, become a university student. That was like this thing on the side I felt like for rest of my life, where my friends were and my hobbies were and stuff like that, so I only stuck with that for a single semester and then dropped out to just basically work full time while I reconsidered what I wanted to do, because it just ... I just wasn't enjoying university and I don't think it was the programming that I wasn't enjoying, it was just the educational side of it and having to get pulled away from the things that I was actually excited about to work on that. So I don't remember what the original question was, but that's kind of that story. Matt Stauffer: Well, no, and that's actually perfect and before I move on from that, I want to ask one question which is, was the distinction between doing versus learning abstract theory, was it about how concrete something was that was the difference between what you did and didn't like, or did I kind of miss that a little bit? Adam Wathan: No, I think that's true. I think the other thing is there's just a lot of classes that you have to take in university that aren't as ... they're not all really like cohesive, you know what I mean? I don't know what the system is like in the U.S., but in Canada we have university and college, which I think is kind of like college and community college in the U.S. Matt Stauffer: I think so, yeah. Adam Wathan: But the way that you pick your classes and stuff a lot of it is you have to go into the school and you have to go and sign up for different classes and you have different requirements, and you have to get credits and different things, but a lot of it is kind of up to you and they don't really put together like a cohesive curriculum. So I had to have X Math credits, X Elective credits, so I took like this history of music class, which is the only class I've ever failed in school in my entire life. Matt Stauffer: Oh, my God. Adam Wathan: And you would think that I ... Just because it's so damn boring, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: And I just like couldn't get into it at all. But everything was just kind of disconnected. There was like some math over here, some physics over here, and because at the early stages of things it's kind of like when you're in like first year of high school or something, they're just trying to teach you all these fundamental concepts- Matt Stauffer: Basics, yeah. Adam Wathan: Without kind of tying them back to the goal they you're trying to get into and I ended up going back to college years later which we can talk about maybe a little bit later, where the curriculum was much more cohesive and everything is sort of designed to teach you to be a programmer, and I really liked that experience. So yeah, I think it is just the fact that there was only one class that I actually liked, which was the programming class and everything else just felt like high school all over again, you know. Matt Stauffer: Yeah, yeah. No, I totally hear that. I mean there's a lot of conversations happening these days and I'll wait to go into them until we talk more about your later school experience, but around trade school versus university, versus whatever else and what are the pros and cons of each and I think a lot of it ... You know, one of the things I've come down to recently is that I've always been a pro university person with lots of caveats, and one of them is just like the school you're at really makes a big difference, and the classes you take and the professors you have. You know, there's a lot of factors that can give you a very, very, very, varied experience, even in the same type of program in the same type of school. So where did you go from there? You said you kind of were reconsidering your working full time, you were recording with your band and were you doing any touring at that point, too? Adam Wathan: No, we never got successful enough to do anything interesting like that. I was local shows and stuff, but yeah, so I was just working like crappy factory jobs basically. I'm trying to think what was the first job that I got after I left university. I have to try and reconstruct a time line, but the one I remember most specifically was working for a company where I was basically just in a factory building really high-end like antique looking stoves. Adam Wathan: So I did that for like a year while I still played in bands and did stuff like that and then eventually a friend of mine was working up in the Alberta oil sands like way up north and I would have all these construction projects to extract all the oil out of the sand and sell it of all over the world, and his dad actually ran the site up there so he had a lot of pull and one day he just called me and he was like, "Hey, do you want a job up here?" And I was like, "Sure." He's like, "Someone's going to call you tomorrow and offer you a job." And I didn't know- Matt Stauffer: That's awesome. Adam Wathan: What it's going to be. Like I had never seen the job description or anything, but this is just this guy's kind of style and so ... Yeah, I ended up working up there for two years doing like basically data entry stuff for the materials team, so I worked in an office in the frigid cold in Fort McMurray where it's like minus 50 degrees Celsius in the winters. Matt Stauffer: Holy crap! Adam Wathan: Our offices are these little portable trailers on the construction site and I was just there basically in Excel reconciling like purchase orders and invoices and making sure that, you know, we received the materials that we had paid for and that all this ... Just a bunch of really kind of monotonous data entry stuff, but for being like a 20 year old kid it paid really well and I did that for like two years until kind of that whole industry and economy started to suffer a little bit more because gas prices and oil prices dropped and they did a bunch of big layoffs which was ... So I got laid off, which was like a blessing in disguise really because I know a lot of people that basically just stayed up there forever because you can never get paid the same thing to come home. And I would work up there for 14 days straight, 10 hours a day and then they would fly you back to where you lived for seven days off. So I was constantly flying back and forth. which just made it really hard to have like a normal life, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: So yeah, I got laid off from that, came home, decided I would use that chance to try and get into like the recording stuff, because I was getting into recording a lot when I was up there and doing it when I was coming home just as kind of a hobby, but I thought why don't I try and like find some bands and record and like mix EPs for them and stuff. So I did that for like a year, which is a dumb industry to get into because bands don't have money, especially local bands, so you can't make a lot of money doing that, but what I found is while I was doing that I was using this tool called Reaper, which I still use out of my podcast and stuff like that, and I found that there was a bunch of features that I wished it had that it didn't have, and it was created by the guy who created Winamp originally, and it's like a very hacker friendly tool, so it lets you like extend it with Python or C++ or Lua now as well, so you can write all these sorts of like plugins and extensions for it and the API that they give you to do that stuff is like very powerful, you can access basically everything in the tool and write your own menu options and dialog boxes and all sorts of features and stuff. Adam Wathan: So I started getting into like hacking around with that doing really simple things and then one of the guys in the IRC chat for the software, kind of like this elite group of people who are like hacking on stuff there. I made this thing using Python and he was like, "You should port this to C++ so we can include it in this big extension that they maintain." and I was like, "I'd love to do that, I just don't have any idea how." and he's like "Well, okay, I'll help you." So for the next little while he would kind of like ... He kind of put together like a playground in this extension source code for me to like write my features in and help me figure out how to get XCode compiling it and all this different stuff, and that's when I kind of really like reignited my excitement and passion for programming because I was just having so much fun adding features to this tool and making it easier for me to do my work to the point where I was having way more fun adding features to the tool than I was actually using the tool to record bands. Adam Wathan: And I didn't even get back into web development or anything at that point. I hadn't made a website since like high school. So that's when I decided you know what, I think I'm going to go back to college and do this programming thing again, but I decided to do college and study university specifically because I knew like what I didn't like about university and I wanted to do something that was a lot more practical and focused on making you into a programmer than it was, you know, educating you about computer science. Matt Stauffer: So I had been meaning to ask and that's helpful. Are you familiar with the concept of a trade school? Adam Wathan: Yeah, like where you would go to learn to become like an electrician or something like that? Matt Stauffer: Yeah, that's not the same thing, right? You're more talking about it's a school, but it's more like single focus sort of like our community colleges, but I was wondering whether colleges like a little bit different than communities or if it's just- Adam Wathan: Yeah, I'm not sure. So the college I went to is Conestoga College. I'm going to pull up the website now, but basically here college programs are usually two-year programs and you get a diploma, and university are four years and you get a degree, that's kind of the fundamental difference. So I'm going to try and pull up like the actual program that I did here so I can kind of talk a little bit about the actual curriculum because I think it's kind of interesting. Matt Stauffer: While you do that, this is definitely similar to community college. It literally even in the Google preview says your community ... Ontario Community College and this is definitely not trade school, definitely community college, if that makes sense. Adam Wathan: Yeah, so I did the software engineering program there, and not the computer programmer course, which I got kind of turned on to that by asking around to friends who had gone to the school to kind of figure out like, you know, what are you supposed to do, but if you look at the actual program courses here we can maybe like link to this and then show it to people that are interested, but like in the first year we had classes like software engineering fundamentals, operating system fundamentals, C, C++ programming, computer security, object oriented programming, some of this has changed, but then year two we did like web design and development, relational databases, Windows and mobile programming, microprocessors and embedded systems, software quality, so like in school we learned about automated testing, which is pretty cool. Matt Stauffer: Nice. Adam Wathan: You never learn that in university. Advanced computer security, mobile application and development. Yeah, so it was just like all programming. Every class was programming, but it was just focused around some different kind of element of it using different technologies and stuff like that. So the nice thing about that is that college is really close to my house and unlike university where the schedule it's like really weird, sometimes I'd go to a three-hour lecture and then have seven hours off then have to go back in the night for a one-hour class. Like this is structured so much similar to high school, you know what I mean? Adam Wathan: Like you'd get there in the morning, you'd leave in the afternoon, so you're there for a long period of time, you get to like meet people, you get put on projects with people, and I really got into what I was doing there in terms of like I made a lot of friends, you know, that kind of became like my focus which was I think what made me not stick it out in university. It was just like such a side project, whereas I was able to really sort of like embed myself into what we're doing in this program, so- Matt Stauffer: That's really interesting. Adam Wathan: Yeah, that went really for me. So I did that for two years. It's a three-year program, but the way they do it is kind of weird. They have like three years with co-op, I don't know if people use that term in the U.S. It's kind of an internship- Matt Stauffer: I don't think so. Adam Wathan: Like paid internship. Matt Stauffer: Oh, yeah. Adam Wathan: So if they do like two years of schooling and then for 18 months you go out into the workforce. There was like four work terms across those 18 months I think, something like that. And some people do them all the same company, some people do four different ones, some people split up however, but you get paid to do that, which is pretty cool like 18 bucks an hour or more depending on who the employer is, and then once you're done that kind of co-op internship stuff, you go back and do your third year of schooling and then you get your diploma and then you're done. Matt Stauffer: Oh, cool. Adam Wathan: So I just did the first two years, and then I did my co-op at Vehikl who were called Chrome Media at the time, and I think I was like the only person to apply for that job because everyone else was trying to get a job at Desire2Learn which is a company that makes like education student management software, and it's all C# and Windows stuff and that's what they teach us in school so that's what everyone was excited about and they were kind of like the cool, hip company in the area, but I was like the only kid in my class that used a Mac, so doing the Windows stuff was painful for me. I had to like boot up a VM and do stuff like that, so even with all our projects I would do in school I was always trying to find technologies that I could work with easier on my Mac. Adam Wathan: Because we had a lot of like web based projects, even though we didn't have a lot of web specific courses, but in the later years we'd have like a project that was a two-month project and you could choose the technology, which is cool, so some people did C#, some people did, whatever. I chose PHP because that was the only programming language I knew of that you could do dynamic stuff on the server. Like at the time I didn't know that oh, you can use Ruby to do that or Java or any of these other languages, I just knew from like trying to create PHP scripts I could accept form submissions when I was 16 years old that like PHP was the language that you do ... I used to do stuff on the server, so I started looking into, you know, tools for PHP that could compare with like ASP or C#. Matt Stauffer: Like MVC. Yeah. Adam Wathan: That like framework and I found my code igniter and stuff like that and so we started messing around with those sorts of things, and I was lucky enough to find a handful of people that wanted to work on those technologies with me instead of doing the C# stuff and they were all pretty bright people, so we did a bunch of projects using that stuff and then when it came time to look for co-op opportunities I applied to Desire To Learn and they never got back to me, which is great because if they had and I had gotten a job there I'd probably still be a C# developer now. Adam Wathan: Instead I saw this tiny, little company that was only three people at the time that was doing like Magento sites and some custom app development in PHP, and I was like you know what, I'll apply for that and I ended up being like the only person in my class who applied there and that ended up being like the best way it could have ever possibly worked out because I met some really cool, talented people there that really helped me get my career to where it is now and encouraged me to speak at user groups and get involved in open source and stuff like that. Matt Stauffer: That's awesome. Adam Wathan: So after I went and worked there I did my whole kind of internship co-op stuff there and I just never went back to school because I had a mortgage and stuff like that. I was like 26 at the time or 25, 26, and I couldn't really afford to like not get paid for another year or going back to school and the whole point of going to school was to be able to get a job. and now I had a job and even if I wanted to leave there, well, I had a job doing programming for a living on my resume now so it didn't really matter, you know what I mean? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: So I got what I needed out of it and then kind of got into the workforce doing PHP stuff and actually like even when I started there, that's when I really got seriously into Laravel stuff. We actually started using Laravel 4 on a client project before it was officially released when it was still like in a beta, which is cool, so I was getting paid to write Laravel code on my very first programming job. Matt Stauffer: Which is amazing. Adam Wathan: Pretty neat. Matt Stauffer: That's very cool. And who are the three? It was Chris and Grant and who was the third person, do you remember? Adam Wathan: Chris, Grant and Caryn, who is like a ... She's a product designer. Matt Stauffer: Product designer, yeah. Adam Wathan: A UX person there. Matt Stauffer: I didn't know she was employee number one. Adam Wathan: I don't think she was employee number one. They kind of went through a couple different iterations of the company doing different stuff- Matt Stauffer: Got it. Okay. Adam Wathan: Over time, but when I got there it was the three of them and they kind of had their thing figured out. Matt Stauffer: Very cool. All right, so the story from there you did at Vehikl ... So when did you start speaking? Was it the Laracon EU testing talk? Was that your first kind of big conference, or what was your speaking journey like? Adam Wathan: So the first talk that I ever gave was like an intro to Laravel talk at a Meetup that we created so that I could give that talk basically like the vehicle we created like the Kitchener-Waterloo Laravel Meetup which only survived like a few Meetups because we also had this like Guelph PHP user group which half the time we were doing Kitchener anyways and that eventually just became like oh, we'll just do everything there because we'd meet up once a month there. But yeah, so I gave a talk at that user group to about like 30 people or something, which was my first time doing any speaking like that, and I may have done another talk after that to like a local Meetup, but yeah, the first conference talk I think was the community day at Laracon EU 2015 or maybe '14, yeah, and I did the talk- Matt Stauffer: I remember it, but I don't remember the year so, yeah. Adam Wathan: Yeah, I can't remember what the talk was called, TDD the good parts, I think, and then after that I think I gave a talk at True North PHP in Toronto at Chris Hartjes and Peter Meth's conference and from there I just kind of got into it more and more. Once you kind of have one conference under your belt, it's a lot easier to get into the other ones, especially if you make the effort to get them filmed and post them online and be able to use that stuff to help show people hey, I can actually do this and it'll be fun. I'm a grown up I can do a good job. Matt Stauffer: Cool. So at some point you were using Laravel, and you became more aware of some of the world's around there. You were looking into things in Rails, you were talking about Ruby some. What was that journey like from Laravel being the thing that you were spending all your time in, to kind of expanding your exposure to the rest of the web world, I guess. Adam Wathan: I can't say ... I can't think of a specific ... I can't remember exactly how I heard about some of these other things, because like I said, I only remember being in college and being like well, PHP is what I use on a server. I didn't even know Rails existed. Like in some ways, in a lot of ways I wish I had known, because I probably would have never become a Laravel programmer. Not because I don't have ... I have anything against Laravel, but throughout the years it's become pretty clear that philosophically I'm much more aligned with the way people think in kind of the Ruby world, right? Adam Wathan: So I was already kind of like deep into Laravel stuff and feeling like pretty fast and productive with it and I'm sure all I was doing was poking around the internet looking for tutorials, reading things about how to do this and that and somewhere in there someone said similar to how this works in Rails blah, blah, you know what I mean? Like eventually you just kind of like start hearing about these things. Matt Stauffer: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Start hearing it, yeah. Adam Wathan: And the Laravel community was a lot less mature than it is now at that point, so a lot of the really good content that was out there was focused on Rails. Like Rails had a big head start on a lot of what we're doing in the Laravel world. Rails came out in like 2004 I think originally. And there's blog posts written in like 2008, 2009 that are still really useful blog posts for people writing Laravel stuff now, so it was actually really interesting for me to discover that kind of whole world because at the time this was like 2013, 2014 when I was learning Laravel originally. Maybe ... Yeah, probably 2013, there was like eight years worth of high quality Rails content out there. So if I could just figure out- Matt Stauffer: Yeah, sitting out there already. Adam Wathan: How to translate the syntax from Ruby to PHP, you know, there was all this content out there that could make me a better Laravel developer, basically. So I got really, really deep into all that stuff and that's when I discovered companies like Thoughtbot that had done tons of blogging and written books and put together video tutorials or Gary Bernhardt's Destroy All Software, which is all Rails stuff. There was just so much good stuff out there and that's where I basically focused all my learning at that point was taking everything that people had already ... Like I make this joke a lot of the time that any time like someone runs into a problem with Laravel, like a design decision where you're like okay, well, what's the best way to do this in Laravel, take the current year subtract four years, include that in your search query and look for how to do that in Rails and there will be like 100 quality blog posts out there. Adam Wathan: So yeah, I got really into just kind of researching what people were doing in these other ecosystems and finding out what made sense to try to port back and apply to what we were doing in PHP stuff and yeah, that's kind of been like my shtick, I guess. I'm always looking outside my existing community to see if ... I think of myself as like Christopher Columbus like going across the sea to the foreign lands and bringing back treasures for people. Matt Stauffer: Nice. Yeah, so let's see. So you worked at Vehikl for a while and do you know how big Vehikl was when you left? Adam Wathan: So it was still actually just the four of us- Matt Stauffer: Oh, yeah? Okay. Adam Wathan: When I left, which was kind of like my motivation for leaving. I still was really enjoying the work that I was doing there, but I had this like nagging feeling that I was missing out on the ability to grow faster by not being part of a bigger team where there was more ... Not more experienced developers like developers with more experience, but just more developers- Matt Stauffer: More people, yeah, yeah. Adam Wathan: That were experienced- Matt Stauffer: With different experiences, yeah. Adam Wathan: To learn from, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: And that was kind of stressing me out at the time, so I ended up leaving to go work for a company that did Rails consulting, but when I got there I got dumped onto a project doing C# and Angular, so I only stayed there for like three months because I want to blow my brains out ,and I soon ... Like within the first week of working I was like I can't believe I left my other job, this sucks so bad. And then after being there for a couple months Tighten, this company out of Chicago that does some Laravel stuff, I don't know, people might have heard of them, posted a job posting on the old Laravel job site and I applied for that and ended up going to work there for a while. Matt Stauffer: It's so weird because I've been trying to figure out how to ask you questions about that time, and it's really tough. I don't know how, but maybe I'll just try and throw a broad one at you and see if that goes somewhere. What was the area you grew in the most while you're working at Tighten? I think that may be a question to start with. Adam Wathan: That's a hard one. I can't think exactly what ... I think the biggest changes for me are the things that I had to figure out the most was like the remote working thing. That was like a new thing for me and figuring out how to ask for help with things and get stuff done and get help from people in a way where like I'm just so used to ... I was just so used to working in an office where if you're frustrated with a problem, like the people sitting around you can tell, you know what I mean? Matt Stauffer: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Adam Wathan: And that's not as easy in a remote company, so you have to figure out ways to manage that sort of thing, especially when people are not always like available at the same time because everyone's kind of working ... Like even though you have kind of standard-ish hours, there's still a lot of a synchronicity to it, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah, yeah. Adam Wathan: Everyone has different calendars with different things going on, which is very different than being in an office. Yeah, people have stuff scheduled and calls and stuff, but you can like see when someone is available. So figuring that out was probably ... That was probably the biggest change and area for me to kind of figure out how to work that way, and yeah, it was good though. I think the remote working set up is the way to do it, as long as you can make sure people are able to communicate when they need to communicate and feel ... You have to be more deliberate about asking for help, which can be hard, you know what I mean? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: If you can just be frustrated and people can tell and people offer to help, that's one thing, but sometimes it's like you feel like you have to ask for help every 15 minutes with something, especially when you're starting, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: And that could be like ... It's like a degree of shame or something like associated with that. That's hard to get over. Matt Stauffer: We've been working ... That's probably been the biggest barrier with bringing on juniors is that the combination of junior, plus remote, it's really an extra level of shame. Adam Wathan: Plus new job, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: Which is hard for even for like an experienced person, yeah. Matt Stauffer: New job, remote, new tech, I don't know what I'm doing, everybody else here has got it and I'm asking for questions every 15 minutes, I feel like I'm bothering people. Adam Wathan: Yeah. Matt Stauffer: That's definitely tough. Adam Wathan: Yeah. Matt Stauffer: So this is the last question I'll ask about your time at Tighten, but one of the things that was really impactful from our perspective was that you had a lot of thoughts about how a company should be run and a lot of them came from watching Base Camp and and Thoughtbot, and thinking about concepts that you've talked about in the podcasts and some of the times I've talked with you about on podcasts of things like no estimates and stuff like that, where there's a certain way of thinking, and I think that Dan and I say often that your time at Tighten was really impactful in terms of just kind of like sharing those things with us, but it wasn't always just as easy as Adam comes in and teaches something. Matt Stauffer: Often it happened in the context of, you know, there was a ... Not necessarily there was a conflict, but there was sort of like well, why is it not happening this way and we'd be like, "Oh well, I don't know. We'll figure that out." So I was wondering during your time at Tighten, do you feel like you learned anything about what you wanted to kind of do when you grew up kind of vibe in terms of teaching, or were there things that you learned about how you think software should be written or something that happened in the context of those learning moments and those conflicts and everything that we had during those times? Adam Wathan: Yeah, I'm try to think if there's anything specific I can take away as like a learning ... Matt Stauffer: And if not, no worries, I'll just edit out the question. Adam Wathan: Yeah, I think like ... I mean, what I like working on the most at Tighten was being able to create projects for companies, build stuff for other people. I think if anything, what I maybe took away is that ... What's the best way to say this? I like having control I guess of like my own destiny in that sense because working with companies to build new projects for them there's like this of course this whole layer of stuff that comes with that that isn't there when you're just building something for yourself of course, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: And it can be a real challenge sometimes to get people on board with building something in a way that is in their best interests, even though they might not understand why or agree why, and that's just like a whole thing that you have to figure out how to navigate that can just get in the way of what you want to do which is just like creating the best thing for solving a problem for them, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: So I think being able to get into what I'm doing now where I get to like create training stuff and stuff like that has been a nice change in that sense, because it lets me focus on just doing ... Creating the thing that I want to create. But yeah, like you said, like I think a lot of the reason that I cared so much at Tighten and everywhere I worked about how to try and run these projects successfully is for that same reason because I just want to make the great project, you know what I mean? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: And I think everyone is on the same page there, right? Like you want to figure out a way to navigate the other stuff and minimize it so that you can just focus on doing the work, but because I just care so much about doing the work and that's what I want to do, that it kind of pulls me down this path of figuring out like okay, what is stopping us from being able to just do the work and what ideas are out there in the world that people have that can help us focus on- Matt Stauffer: Help us, yeah. Adam Wathan: Just doing the work for people. So I don't know if that really answers your question in terms of I guess like a specific kind of learnings or take aways, but in terms of, you know, that sort of project management side of things, I think that's sort of like where my motivations at least come from to care about that stuff. Matt Stauffer: Well, it's funny because you say everyone feels that way and of course everyone, you know, hopefully wants to really do a good job for the client, but it also reflects a little bit back on what we were talking about earlier about you love doing things to the best they can possibly be done and it's not just your things, you know, it's also other people's things. Like every project you have a hand in, you want it to be the best possible thing, and if there's stuff getting in the way of that, well, then that's stuff that you need to kind of shave off so that it can just be the optimal it will be. So I totally hear that and that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for answering that kind of convoluted question. Matt Stauffer: So the transition from there was it was during your time there that you wrote your book and you released it and you were able to transition it to be doing your own educational stuff full time. So in terms of that switch, when and what was the process like for you to start thinking you know what, working at somebody else's consultancy may just not end up being the thing for me and I want to try info products or I want to try my own products or something like that? Like what was that journey like for you? Adam Wathan: Yeah, so I think for me what really happened there as I put together this book and released it, I didn't really have crazy expectations for it or anything like that. Again, it was just one of those things where I've always just really liked making polished things that are finished that you can look at and be like this is done and this is tidy and this feels nice. And I used to do that with even like trying to contribute tutorials to Game Facts and stuff back in the day. I never got anything on there, but I would just like agonize over like making some sweet like ASCII art title at the top of these like stupid plain text files- Matt Stauffer: That's perfect. Adam Wathan: And I just wanted it to feel like a polished thing, right? So that was kind of like one of my biggest motivations for making the book was first of all, I've always been interested in like creating something and selling it and seeing like what it's like to make your own money on the internet sort of thing, but I also just like ... It's hard to think back to it now because I have a few products now, but back then I kind of felt like I just had never got to finish anything, if that makes sense? Matt Stauffer: Yeah, definitely. Adam Wathan: And this is a common thing that I think like agencies deal with a lot in general, right? As you get to work with a client, you do a lot of really great work for them, but you're not necessarily like always around 'till the end of the project because maybe eventually they hire their own team which is one of their goals from the beginning, right? They're trying to get like a head start on something so that once they have a little bit of traction they can build their own team around it, because of course that's more economical way to handle that. Adam Wathan: Or the other end of the spectrum is you start working on a project for someone and it turns out that they just aren't able to hold up their end of the bargain really and the project is just not going to work out and you do work for them for six weeks and then they realize like you know what, I'm not ever going to be able to make an app company properly, so you kind of just say okay, thanks for your work, you did a great job, but like that's the end of the project. Like I've worked on so many projects that never even went to production, you know? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: Or got any users or anything like that and that's kind of like a ... At the time that was kind of "I just want to finish something. I just want to have something that's done." I did that with my Nitpick too, that little SaaS something- Matt Stauffer: Yeah, I remember. Adam Wathan: That I built, and the whole goal there was just the same thing, like I want to build an app 'till it's done and then put it out on the internet, and that was just like a cool feeling. So I did the same thing with the book and then the book ended up being, you know, pretty successful, and before I worked on that book, I had the idea all along that what I really wanted to do was some sort of testing thing, like some TDD book or course or something, but it was just like ... Sounded like so daunting, it just sounded like a big project. Adam Wathan: So I stumbled on this idea to the collections thing, and that seemed so much more manageable, so once I had finished that and, you know, it was pretty successful, I thought you know what, if I want to do this like testing product, this is the best possible chance that I'm going to have to be able to spend the time on that because the book did well enough that like I can take six months off and focus on this thing. So I thought you know what, I'm not going to get a chance like this again. If I don't do it now then this money is just going to go into an RSP or something and it's just going to ... Yeah, of course that's good, I should have money saved away for a time. Matt Stauffer: Right, right. Adam Wathan: I'm not going to ... Like it's not going to change my life in any way, I'm just going to keep doing the exact same thing that I'm doing. The book's going to be out there, but I'm not like seizing the moment to use it as an opportunity to try something. So I thought you know what, this is like the only chance that I'm going to get to probably do this, so why don't I try it out. So that's when I decided to move on to try and to just do something for myself and see how it panned out and I did the testing course, which was way bigger than I even was worried about it being originally. Adam Wathan: So it's a good thing that I didn't try and put it together when I was still working, but that did really well too, and that's been able to let me focus on continuing to do more stuff like that. I'm always able to stay just like a little bit enough ahead of where I need to be that I have some time to figure out what the next thing is going to be, you know, and I'm just kind of like building the bridge as I try and cross the river. Matt Stauffer: Yeah, that's awesome. I remember one of the things that you said when you let us know that you were going to be going off to do the thing full time and you said, "You know, I don't know how this is going to work out, but I know that if it totally flops in six months I can apply to one of a myriad programming jobs, but if I don't try this, there's no guarantee I'll ever have this chance ever again where there's the traction for my book and I have enough money to kind of try this thing and so I got at least try it." And that really stuck with me, just the idea that like ... And I mean I've had that happen where I've had an influx of cash and it just kind of goes and spreads out across retirement savings and health expenses and whatever else, and your life is exactly the same even though you put all that work into it, and so that idea of those are those moments and it's scary, but like what's the worst thing that's going to happen? I'll use up all the money and then apply for jobs on the other end. Matt Stauffer: You know I'm a little less stable because I'll have to be applying for a job versus having once settled, but there's no guarantee that your job's not going to shut down the next day, you know, and so like the idea that oh well, everything's perfect now, I'll be put ... No, no. You know, I really love that kind of thinking and obviously at least so far it's working out really well for you, so I'm hoping that's an inspiration for other people to kind of consider taking some of those leaps. Matt Stauffer: I would love to ask you a million questions about how you think about product and stuff like that, but we're longer than usual, and thankfully other people have asked you that on their podcasts, so I'm going to try and link some of your stuff with Justin Jackson and some other people, also Full Stack Radio, even though it's you interviewing other people, you do learn a lot about the interviewer by the questions they ask. So all this super interesting stuff that we don't have time for, I hope that we'll be able to ... People will be able to kind of suss that information out anywhere else. Matt Stauffer: But I think one of the things we have not talked about, so every time I'm going to be interviewing somebody in the Laravel podcasts I go into Tighten Slack and I say I'm about to interview this person and I'm actually opening my Slack right now to make sure that new questions ... Yep, a couple of new questions came in, and I say, "Are there any particular questions that y'all want to ask them?" And so I ask that question in Tighten Slack, which is kind of funny because you are still in some of our Slacks and you used to work there, but there's still some questions. Matt Stauffer: So the first question came up for you is, "Do you even lift, bro? Which first of all is fantastic, but second of all in our Slack that actually triggers a gif of you doing a lift, so it's perfect. So we haven't gotten to talk about that at all. Adam Wathan: Yeah. Matt Stauffer: Where did that fit into your whole world? Can you tell everybody a little bit about kind of that part of your life? Adam Wathan: Yeah, so when I was working up in Fort McMurray in Alberta, I've always been kind of like an overweight kid. Matt Stauffer: Same. Adam Wathan: And like most people, like you just want to look better, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: So when I was working up there, you're just like so bored and you're not using your willpower for basically anything else that it was like an opportunity to finally try and do that seriously, right? It's actually funny because if you follow along with like the bootstrap podcast like Ian and Andre, Andre is kind of doing the same sort of thing. Like he decided to basically take off some time during the year from any really like mentally sort of straining work. Like I think he's just mostly focused on doing some consulting stuff and I'm not even sure if he's working the same amount of hours and stuff that he was doing normally, but he decided like, you know, I want to take this opportunity with this kind of reserve of mental energy that I have and focus on something like really life changing thing, which for him was like getting in shape, right? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: And it's funny because I never really thought about it that way, but when I heard him phrase it that way it's like you know what, that's exactly like why I was able to do it originally, because I just didn't have anything else pulling at my brain. So when you're going to make dinner or even going out for dinner with your friends it's easy to order the vegetables instead of the fries because like I just haven't used any of that brainpower, you know what I mean? Matt Stauffer: Yeah. Adam Wathan: So when I was working out there, I just ... It was easier for me to start eating a lot better and get into like home workouts and stuff like that and that led me down this whole path of eventually discovering like strength training. Pro tip; if you're a programmer who wants to like start exercising, the terms that you should be Googling are strength training. That is the term that's going to find you ... At least I think is going to find you the stuff that's going to resonate most with how your brain works in terms of things being really measurable and being able to like science the shit out of everything with lots of percentages and math. Adam Wathan: But eventually I kind of stumbled onto this like form of exercise where you're just focusing on like lots of really high bang for your buck compound exercises like multi joint movements like squats and deadlifts and bench press and overhead press and chin ups and barbell rows and stuff like that, and once I finally found the good stuff online which was like Mark Rippetoe's content and stuff like that, you learn like what you should be doing is progressively trying to increase the weight that you're lifting. Like a lot of people just go to the gym and they just like pick whatever they think is going to be like a good weight to lift that day and just do it or whatever, but they're not actually tracking their progress, so they don't really make progress, but if you can develop a plan where you know like okay, this week this is what I'm lifting, next week I have to try and lift this and it goes up and up and up. Adam Wathan: For me that's what was able to keep me kind of motivated because I was seeing progress on paper because seeing progress in the mirror is a lot harder, it takes a lot longer and it's a lot more subtle and gradual, and if you're not taking the pictures of yourself topless in the mirror every week to compare like okay, do I actually look like I'm getting in better shape, but if you're just like blogging stuff in a notebook it's easy to say okay, I bench pressed 185 for six reps last week and this week I did it for eight reps, that's pretty cool. So I've kind of gone into this whole thing of getting stronger and lifting and eventually started competing in power lifting competitions because like with everything I do I have to take it to the extreme. Adam Wathan: So what started as like 185 pound like skinny fat kid to trying to like look better without his shirt off, turned into like a 260 pound dude deadlifting 600 pounds and winning nationals power lifting gold bells. That was just something ... I would still be doing that, but it's a hard ... Once you get there's like a point of diminishing returns, which I think I definitely hit, where you're just more likely to get injured than you are to make progress, and I've hurt myself a couple times and I have a nagging back injury now that doesn't bother me day to day, but any time I get back into lifting, no matter how light I start, after a couple weeks I do one rep not 100% perfect and my back is messed up for a week, it's really frustrating. Adam Wathan: So it's hard for me to really stay motivated into it these days because the thing that kept me going was like getting stronger. So going to the gym to lift less than I did before is like, whatever. I still need to get back into it more, but yeah, that was a big thing for me for a while. Matt Stauffer: It's funny because as you were saying that, a light was going off in my head. I switched to a new trainer about four months ago and it was the first time the trainer has been trying to teach me the skills to be able to stop working with him versus just kind of like giving himself job security by just kind of telling me what to do. And he's a Mark Rippetoe guy and he just moved to Chicago, or he's moving to Chicago this weekend and so he's like here's everything I know and he set me up with this thing called ... Have you ever heard of the 5-3-1? Adam Wathan: Yep, that's what I always used to do. Jim Wendler. Matt Stauffer: That's literally what I started it this week at the new gym on my own and I've got a 5-3-1 calculator. Adam Wathan: That's awesome. Matt Stauffer: I plug all my information in. Adam Wathan: It's amazing. Jim Wendler is like he's the DHH of weight lifting. Like he's just got that same like everyone over complicates things attitude and there's this quote that I ... So this is so funny because like so many people who get into power lifting are like super nerds about this stuff, right? Like the amount of like just nerds that get into this stuff is outrageous just because of the fact that you get to make spreadsheets, you get to calculate like your estimated one rep max based on how many reps you lift this way or whatever. Adam Wathan: And I'll never forget there's like a F.A.Q. section in one of Jim Wendler's books where someone asks a question and it's like, what is the best ... I can't remember exactly how it was phrased, but basically the question is like what incline should I be using on like

Mark Rippetoe probably doesn't need an introduction for many of you. The author of “Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training” and “Practical Programming for Strength Training” has been training athletes for 40+ years. Mark is as well-know for his strong opinions as he is for his expertise and he shares them on this episode. We cover: […]

Power Athlete Nation, it's time to kick the tires and light the firing, of your muscle fibers. We have the Grandaddy of the Barbell Mark Rippetoe check in and talk everything from butchering a cow to the all mighty powers of the FMS. Rippetoe gives us some great words of wisdom and challenges coaches to…