Straight Shot Radio

Ep. 70: "What's Your Excuse?" Isn't Helping Anyone

In the age of "fitsporational" posts I see a lot of "what's your excuse?" captions and taglines. While the poster's intentions are probably good, the phrase most likely doesn't have the effect they want it to.
In this episode I go through the 3 categories of excuses (and each one's validity), and how we need to take a more practical, grounded approach to gym motivation.

Ep. 69: Deloading...You're Probably Not Doing It Right

Recovery is the difference between you spinning your wheels and making progress in the gym. A lot of people think about the amount of recovery they need during the week between workout sessions, but not enough value is placed in taking entire recovery WEEKS (aka deload weeks) throughout the year. Once I can convince someone that they need to deload in the first place, they typically make one of the mistakes I go over in this episode. Let's get into the the why, the how, and the how NOT to deload!

Ep. 68: Why Is Moderation So Controversial?

Whether it was studying clinical nutrition as part of my degree, spending over a decade training people of all fitness backgrounds, testing out various diets myself, or constantly reading studies and observing empirical evidence, I've come to the following conclusion: most diets have redeeming qualities. So take the good parts from each (ex. eating mostly whole foods with plenty of produce), and don't get overly restrictive with whatever your diet is.
For some reason though, has become controversial on the internet, when in fact it's the time tested way to live longer, healthier lives.

Ep. 67: Tie Your Shoes!

This is something that has bugged me forever: People lifting with their shoes untied. I know it's a bit of an odd rant, but when you hear the story I share about a lifter I once questioned about his untied shoes, you'll hopefully see why it's problematic...And why it goes way beyond your shoes being untied.

Ep. 66: Put Your Money Where Your Health Is

When it comes to health and fitness, it's no big secret that you get better results when you take it seriously. But in order to receive a favorable return on investment, the investment (mentally, physically, and financially) often needs to be big enough for you want to actually commit to it. As someone who wants to help as many people as I can, I have often struggled with the transactional side of personal training and coaching. As you'll hear in this episode though, I've learned that the clients who prioritize their health the most (including financially), get the best results.

Ep. 65: Increasing Your Work Capacity

Work capacity is the total amount of work you can perform, recover from, and adapt positively to. Over the next six weeks, the Straight Shot athletes will be working on increasing their work capacity through a variety of different training methods. In this episode, I go over how my approach to increasing work capacity is different than other approaches, and how this style of training can increase your strength, endurance, lean muscle mass, and overall fitness level.

Ep. 64: Is Social Media Killing The Fitness Industry?

Is social media helping or hurting people get fitter? It's become popular for coaches in my industry to blame social media for the spread of misinformation, but is this REALLY anything new? In this episode, I share my thoughts on the current state of reason and truth in the fitness space in the age of social media.

Ep. 63: Stop Working Out To Burn Calories

I know, it's a weird request, but listen to this episode of the podcast and you'll hear why a different approach to caloric management may be more effective for you than the trendy studios and fitness gadget companies would like you to think. This method will also help you address all of the other things you should be working on in the gym besides just losing weight (if that's your goal).

Ep. 62: Training vs. Exercising

Are you training? Or just exercising? Learn the difference in this episode and how training with structure and purpose can keep you from burnout in the gym and actually get you on your way to where you want to be.

Ep. 61: Better Cardio, Better Lifts

You've heard it all before: "running sucks" "cardio is Hardio" "cardio will kill your gains"... but how universally important is cardiorespiratory conditioning for athletes of all types? In this episode, I get into how even just a little cardio will make you a better lifter and how it can improve your recovery to increase your total fitness. 

Ep. 60: Commit or Miss

Here are two scary stories about the times that I missed landing backflips due to not committing to the movement. The concept of doing a backflip probably isn't relevant to you, but I tie it into how the fear of commitment is making your lifts worse (and more dangerous), and how this lesson that I teach in the gym can be applied to your life outside of it.

Ep. 59: Questioning the Culture of Pain in Competitive Fitness

I've competed as a runner, a Crossfitter, and a Strongman and have noticed a dangerous glorification of pain and acceptance of injuries as "just part of training" for those sports. I lay out in this episode my counter to this trend in hopes that you can feel awesome while still performing well over the course of your life.