Straight Shot Radio

Ep. 33: Sleep Hygiene

You know how your workouts suffer on days when you don’t sleep well, and how it’s much easier it is to recover when you DO sleep well. Electrical muscular stimulation, compression, soft tissue work, cupping, and ice baths might be pieces of the recovery puzzle, but none can compete with sleep as the most beneficial recovery technique, along with nutrition and hydration. This is where sleep hygiene comes in. Sleep hygiene is the habits and practices that are conducive to sleeping well on a regular basis. In this episode , I discuss the best ways to insure a great night of sleep so you can recover from your workouts well, increase your productivity throughout the day, and improve your overall health.

Ep. 32: Gym Etiquette

Look around your gym and you’ll see signs that say “rack your weights” or “no cell phones”, but the gym etiquette list is a lot longer and more nuanced than that. For example, when is it ok to ask to share a squat rack with someone? Or when is it appropriate to drop your weights? In this episode I get together with a few of the personal trainers from the Frederick YMCA and we cover a wide range of gym etiquette topics, including the “why” “when” and “how” of grunting, and the importance of being on time for personal training sessions. The crew at the Y is always a blast to be around, and we definitely have fun with this one!

Ep. 31: Injuries in Crossfit

A decade ago, programs like Crossfit were on the fringe and only used by fitness buffs looking for a new challenge away from the typical gym experience. Now Crossfit has over 11,000 affiliates worldwide and hosts an online fitness competition every year that has well over 200,000 participants of ALL fitness levels. High intensity cross training programs combining gymnastics, weightlifting, powerlifting, strongman, and racing sports like running, biking, and swimming are now present in some capacity at just about any mainstream gym you go to. But still there is this stigma attached to these programs that they are dangerous and participants are prone to injury at a higher rate than other forms of exercise or sport. So, is this true? And if it is, how can we make it safer to enjoy programs like this? This episode is loaded with recent studies I want to share with you to get to the bottom of it, along with some exciting news Straight Shot has for Crossfit athletes!

Ep. 30: Sugar Mythbusting

Sugar has a pretty bad reputation. We’ve all heard about how consuming it leads to obesity, it’s physically addictive, it causes type 2 diabetes, and even how eating sugar can increase your risk of cancer. And with the severity of these accusations against a single food, it’s easy to see why sugar is considered a poison by just about everyone in the fitness world. But with all of the hysteria, how many people have looked into the science behind sugar and the studies behind these claims? That’s what I do in this episode. We take a straight forward look at what sugar really is, how your body actually handles it, and what the scientists conducting the latest research say about the claims being made against sugar.

Ep. 29: Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals

How are those new year’s resolutions holding up after a week? If you’re like most people who make resolutions this time of year, I'm going to be honest with you...only 20% of you will stick with it past February. Being a personal trainer for the past 10 Januarys, I know how this works. People have the best intentions to get in shape, lose weight, get stronger, or start running, but sadly, 80% of these people will quit for one reason or another. Some studies have even found that only 8% of people keep their resolutions. So why is it so hard to accomplish these goals? Well, a lot of it has to do with how you set your goal in the first place. In this episode, I give you some examples of common fitness goals, and how each can be tweaked to be a bit better, and pull it all together to help you create SMART goals for yourself that will greatly increase the likelihood of your success!

Ep. 28: Choosing Joy with Mary from The Frey Life

If you had to spend every day fighting a genetic disease by doing hours of therapy, regular hospital admissions, taking countless medications and intravenous drugs, and using a feeding tube to maintain a healthy weight, and do all of this just to be able to breathe, you can imagine how hard it would be to see the joy in life. Mary Frey not only goes through all of that to battle her Cystic Fibrosis with a positive attitude, she has also made it her mission to spread laughter and joy alongside her husband in their YouTube vlog, “The Frey Life.” In this episode we get into how exercise is used as a treatment for CF, how Mary came to love yoga and doing handstands in hospital rooms, and how to push out negativity, self doubt, and fear, by choosing joy, courage, and hope.

Ep. 27: Strength is King with John Taylor

Socrates said “No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” Being strong makes you better at just about everything. That’s why even though the Straight Shot Training program balances all aspects of fitness, we consider strength training with excellent technique the foundation of our model. John Taylor has the same approach to fitness, as he trains year round and competes in Strongman competitions. Get a brief intro into the world of Strongman, and how a strong body equals a strong mind, as we get into why strength is king

Ep. 26: Misconceptions About Personal Trainers

Did you know that personal trainers are not paid to yell at you? Or just count your reps? Did you know that we don’t get paid to work out and we don’t just eat chicken and broccoli? There are a lot of misconceptions floating around about personal trainers, so I brought in two of my fellow trainers from the Shepherd University Wellness Center to clear up the confusion and give you all the inside scoop on what it’s actually like to coach other people for a living.

Ep. 25: Opinions Don't Matter with Chris Powell

Chris was a heavy kid who grew up in a poor family in Indiana. He ignored bullies and people who didn’t believe in him, and became successful in his career as an adult, but was near 300lb and borderline diabetic by his mid 30’s. Chris started training with me and taking my classes, and got serious about his diet to lose 70 pounds! Chris’ brutal honesty and inability to let people’s opinions get to him might make him seem like a bit of a tough cookie, but he explains how it’s helped him stay in his lane and focus on what he needs to do for his health and fitness.

Ep. 24: Tools of the Strength Trade

Every wonder where kettlebells came from? Or where dumbbells got their name? Or why the barbell was invented? Well, probably not because that’s not something the average person stays up at night thinking about, but the answers to these questions ARE pretty interesting. In this episode, I give you a brief history and explanation of some of the tools of the strength trade and why each is an important part of a functional fitness program. Along the way you’ll also find out why clowns juggle bowling pins, learn about the Victorian Era health craze, and hear how the invention of the barbell almost tragically died with it’s inventor.

Ep. 23: Why Prehab?

If you visit a physical therapist for an injury, they’ll help you get back to moving pain free with a list of rehab exercises. But what if you aren’t injured? Do you still need to perform movements like rotator cuff exercises? Hip mobility drills? Low back and core stability drills? Well that depends...do you want a healthy rotator cuff? Mobile hips? A stable core that keeps your low back from getting injured? If you answered yes, then you really should consider adding some PREHAB exercises into your warm ups. Being proactive and doing so isn’t just injury prevention insurance, it can also increase your performance! This means bigger lifts, more muscle, faster times, more power and speed, and you get it all while moving with better form and creating solid movement patterns that’ll last. I give you the what, why, and how of prehab in this episode.

Ep. 22: Enjoying Your Thanksgiving

Here's your official "diet and workout pass" card from two personal trainers so you can chill out, enjoy your time with your family, and eat some delicious food this Thursday. Rebecca Reifsnider and I give you a fresh take from two fitness professionals as we don't mind you going off your diet and workout plan for a day or two, provided it's not carried on for the next 6 weeks into the new year. We have tons of thoughts, tips, ideas, and strategies for you in this episode along with why I think Rebecca's eating habits should be studied by criminal psychiatrists.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!