Barbell Shrugged

Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash and Dr. Mike Lane break down power training for masters athletes and why staying strong doesn't automatically mean staying explosive. They discuss the age-related loss of fast-twitch muscle fibers, the demands that jumping and sprinting place on connective tissue, and why returning to explosive training requires a gradual progression. From jump rope and basic hops to hill sprints, box jumps, and squats paired with jumps, the crew explains how to rebuild the ability to move fast while preparing the body to handle rapid force production and landing.

The conversation expands beyond vertical jumps to the rotational and lateral power athletes use in jiu-jitsu, striking, tennis and everyday life. The crew shares practical options, including medicine ball throws, kettlebell movements, Olympic lift variations, agility drills and short sets of explosive burpees, and explains how to choose movements that fit your joints and training history. They also discuss using velocity and power feedback to track progress, keeping enough variety to make training fun, and preserving the physical reserve to react quickly, catch yourself and get off the ground as you age. If you want to keep feeling athletic through your 40s, 50s and beyond, this episode offers a practical starting point.

In this episode

• Why speed and power are the first traits to fade with age
• Easing back into jumping: jump rope, basic hops, then box jumps and hill sprints
• Pairing squats with jumps, and preparing connective tissue for landing
• Rotational and lateral power: med ball throws, kettlebells and Olympic lift variations
• Tracking progress with velocity and power feedback
• Keeping the reserve to react, catch yourself and get off the ground

Connect with the crew

• Coach Travis Mash: https://www.mashelite.com
• Coach Travis Mash on Instagram: @coachtravismash
• Dr. Mike Lane on Instagram: @mikelanephd
• Doug Larson on Instagram: @douglaselarson
• Barbell Shrugged on Instagram: @barbell_shrugged
• Work with Doug, Travis and Dr. Mike Lane: https://biomolecularathlete.com

Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash and Dr. Mike Lane break down strength and conditioning for MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, with a heavy emphasis on speed and power endurance. Doug shares lessons from his own fighting and coaching experience, including how he structures heavy bag intervals and a simple way to progress fight-specific conditioning. The crew covers aerobic fitness, recovery between rounds, and why your conditioning needs to reflect the muscles, movements and pace you actually use when you compete.

They also get into assessing and developing strength, mobility and work capacity, why strength can't replace technical skill (especially in jiu-jitsu), and how confidence in your defense lets you commit to your offense. If you train or coach combat sports, this one will help you find what's holding you back and make your gym work carry over to the mat or the ring.

In this episode

• Doug's path from taekwondo to wrestling, jiu-jitsu and fighting MMA
• Full-speed heavy bag intervals: hold the pace, rest when it drops, shrink the rest over time
• Aerobic base vs. specificity, and how the big fast fibers recover between rounds
• Simple threshold checks: the talk test and nasal breathing
• Finding weak points: strength, muscle mass, mobility and single-leg strength
• Why skill comes first, and why good defense builds offensive confidence

Connect with the crew

• Coach Travis Mash: https://www.mashelite.com and Instagram @coachtravismash
• Dr. Mike Lane: Instagram @mikelanephd
• Doug Larson: Instagram @douglaselarson
• Barbell Shrugged: Instagram @barbell_shrugged
• Work with Doug, Travis and Dr. Mike Lane at Biomolecular Athlete

In this episode, veteran strength coach Robb Rogers joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to explore what decades of coaching collegiate athletes, professional teams, and military operators can teach us about building lasting performance. From the St. Louis Blues to special warfare, Robb explains what elite performers share, how tactical demands change the training equation, and why trust and personal accountability are essential to effective coaching. He shares how he builds programs with experienced athletes and chooses exercises around the person, their goals, and the demands they need to meet.

The conversation turns to getting stronger while keeping the ability to move well. The crew discusses the trade-offs of training to failure, using jumps to assess readiness, and maintaining mobility, elasticity, and movement skills alongside heavy lifting. Robb explains why the movement pattern matters more than the implement, while Travis and Mike share how a narrow focus on powerlifting affected their own athleticism. Whether you coach high performers or want to stay capable as you age, this episode offers practical ways to make your training carry over beyond the weight room.

I've been a fan of velocity-based training since I first experimented with it in 2005. After three four-week blocks, I hit PRs across my weightlifting and powerlifting lifts while really enjoying the training itself. It felt like I was running sprints in the weight room. Full speed, not to failure, full rest. Fun and effective. The work felt easier on my body, yet I felt faster and more explosive than I had before.

So getting to sit down with Dr. Bryan Mann, the person who brought VBT into the mainstream, was a conversation I'd been looking forward to for many years. We talk about where velocity tracking adds value, how the approach can fit different athletes, when it's useful, when it's unnecessary, measurement devices, and how to use it for maximum results in strength and power development. I came away reminded why I've loved this style of training for so long. Enjoy!

This week on Barbell Shrugged, Brian Newman joins Doug Larson and Dr. Mike Lane to talk about getting stronger, recovering from hard training, and staying healthy enough to keep doing what you love. Brian spent years working in professional baseball and now serves as Director of Health, Performance, and Safety for Fort Worth Fire. He explains how he trains firefighters who don't have an off-season and might get called out in the middle of a workout. We talk about moving in heavy gear, building a program around the squat, hinge, push, pull, and carry, and why getting crushed by a workout doesn't necessarily mean you're getting better.

We also get into what it takes to come back from an injury and actually perform well again. Brian explains why your wearable can't tell you everything, how to adjust training when you're not recovering, and why strength coaches and medical staff need to talk to each other throughout rehab. Whether you're training for a sport, doing a physically demanding job, or just want to keep lifting as you get older, there's a lot here you can use. Have a reason for the work you're doing, give yourself enough time to recover, and make sure the people helping you are on the same page.

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we welcome Dr. Andy Fry to the show. Dr. Fry is a pioneer and legend in the world of strength and conditioning and someone who helped shape my career long before this podcast existed. He served as an advisor and mentor to both me and Dr. Andy Galpin during our early years at the University of Memphis.

He's one of the most impressive scientists in the industry, with approximately 300 research papers produced by him and his teams over the years, all dedicated to learning what really works to improve human performance. He's done more than almost anyone on the planet to push the industry forward. He's a true professional, an excellent scientist and educator, an overall great guy, and someone for whom I have an enormous amount of respect.

If you're curious about where the science and practice of strength training started and how it has improved and evolved over the years, this episode is for you. Enjoy the show!

Former Division I and professional basketball player Gini Grimsley joins Doug Larson, Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to discuss one of the hardest transitions in fitness: going from competitive athlete to normal life without losing the identity, structure, and physical capability that sports provided. Gini explains why former athletes often struggle to stop comparing themselves to their younger selves—and how the desire to prove what they can still do can lead to unnecessary pain, injury, and frustration. The team explores how athletes can redirect their competitive drive, establish new performance goals, and build a training routine around who they are today.

Gini also breaks down her current approach to lifelong athleticism, including strength training, conditioning, plyometrics, unilateral movements, rotational work, and reactive activities such as pickleball. She explains how modifying exercises can preserve intensity while reducing orthopedic stress, why adults should rebuild tissue tolerance before jumping into races or high-volume programs, and how smart assessments can prevent trainers from overwhelming unprepared clients. Whether you are a former athlete or simply want to remain strong, fast, and capable as you age, this episode offers a practical framework for training hard without allowing your ego to destroy your body.

Cody McBroom joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to break down what separates a list of exercises from real coaching. As a strength coach, online coaching business owner, and host of the Choose Hard podcast, Cody works with "advanced general population" clients who have tried to train and diet but still cannot connect the dots. The crew gets practical about why many people fail to progress: they are training too far from true effort, cutting ranges of motion short, or following a program without understanding how hard the work should feel. Cody explains how thoughtful exercise selection, rep ranges, video feedback, and clear progression can help online coaches create programs that are harder to misinterpret—and more likely to produce results.

The conversation then moves past macros and reps into the real challenge of coaching: behavior change. Cody shares his framework for helping clients build self-control, self-discipline, self-belief, and ultimately self-respect by tying health goals to their core values and creating evidence through small, kept promises. They unpack how to handle all-or-nothing thinking, why accountability has to lead to a specific action plan, and how coaches can ask better questions instead of settling for "I'll try harder." Whether you coach athletes, general-population clients, or yourself, this episode offers a sharper way to turn good intentions into lasting habits and sustainable results.

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

Dr. Sean Pastuch sits down with Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to talk about what he's learned the hard way about chronic pain, discipline and how to get back to training pain free. Pulling from his new book *Live More, Hurt Less*, Sean breaks down why so many lifters end up organizing their entire life around avoiding pain, and how that strategy inevitably makes training less fun than it used to be.

He shares his own story of dealing with seven years of debilitating neck pain, and how nothing changed until he finally had a compelling reason to change it. That meant hiring a coach, getting serious about sleep and nutrition, delegating the stressors he was carrying, and making recovery the highest priority in his life.

The conversation digs into how the story you tell yourself, the things you do every day, and the people you surround yourself with either reinforce your limitations or help you take your agency back. Sean gets practical about how to actually talk to doctors so you can get what you need, as well as how to set real expectations between coaches and clients.

The team also gets into what ethical sales actually looks like in coaching, why good coaches need to screen for real commitment, and how the best practitioners stay directionally correct without pretending they have all the answers. If pain, fear, or stagnation has made your world smaller than you want it to be, this episode lays out a framework for rebuilding capacity, getting stronger, restoring confidence, and getting back to the things that actually matter to you.

In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, blood flow restriction specialist Dr. Michael MacPherson joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to break down how BFR training can be used for far more than post-injury rehabilitation. Michael explains how strategically restricting blood flow creates a hypoxic environment that increases type II muscle fiber recruitment, metabolic stress, and cellular swelling—even when training with relatively light loads. The result is a powerful tool for building or maintaining strength and muscle while reducing the mechanical stress placed on joints and connective tissue. They also discuss limb occlusion pressure, why cuff design matters, and why modern BFR protocols don't need to be brutally painful to work.

The conversation expands into practical applications for athletes, lifters, and anyone looking to improve performance or recovery. Michael explains how BFR walking, cycling, leg curls, Nordics, plyometrics, and even passive recovery sessions can be incorporated into training, with walking protocols as simple as 10–15 minutes at roughly 30–60% limb occlusion pressure. The team also explores how BFR may help athletes strengthen commonly neglected areas like the hamstrings without adding significant training fatigue, making it especially useful during heavy training blocks, travel, injury rehabilitation, and return-to-play programs. Whether you're trying to add muscle, protect irritated joints, improve conditioning, or address weak links without piling on more heavy loading, this episode provides a practical framework for adding BFR to your training.

In this episode, Doug Larson joins Coach Travis Mash and Dr. Mike Lane to break down what it takes to build a scalable strength and conditioning program for police officers. Mash shares his new partnership with the Winston-Salem Police Department, beginning with a six-week, 15-person pilot designed to refine onboarding, testing, training, and ongoing monitoring before expanding to roughly 600 officers and support staff. The team explains why tactical fitness must be built around a job-task analysis: officers may spend hours sitting in a patrol vehicle, then suddenly need to sprint, grapple, drag a person, or make a high-stakes decision while wearing a vest and duty gear.

The conversation covers how to assess reactive strength, tissue readiness, total-body power, relative strength, aerobic capacity, and repeat-effort conditioning without injuring or overwhelming the people being tested. They examine why generic standards like a mile-and-a-half run or 175-pound dummy drag may not fully reflect real-world demands, how a larger fitness reserve protects situational awareness under stress, and why cardiovascular conditioning can be a survival skill, not just a performance metric. They also discuss the mobility problems created by long hours in a patrol car, including restricted hips, shoulders, and lower backs, and how loaded mobility and heavy isometrics can help tactical professionals, and aging athletes, stay capable, resilient, and ready when the stakes are highest.

In this episode, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane break down everything athletes need to know about protein: what it does, how much you actually need, and how to make it work in the real world. They dismantle the myth that the body can only use 30–35 grams per meal, explain why protein needs should scale with lean body mass and training goals, and show how distributing protein across three or four meals can support muscle growth, recovery, and performance without obsessing over a narrow post-workout window.

The conversation then compares animal and plant proteins, whole foods and powders, whey and casein, and the potential role of collagen for connective tissue. They explain why the calories accompanying a protein source matter (beef ribeye, chicken breast, lentils, and peanut butter deliver radically different amounts of fat, carbohydrates, and fiber) and how your choices should change when gaining muscle versus losing fat. From ready-to-drink shakes and egg-white blends to pre-bed protein and workout-day carbohydrates, this episode provides a simple framework for hitting your protein target while adapting the details to your body, schedule, and goals.

Dr. Eric Trexler returns to Barbell Shrugged to break down one of the most misunderstood subjects in fitness: how the body adapts to dieting, exercise, and energy restriction. Eric, a Duke University researcher with a PhD in Human Movement Science, joins Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash to explain the constrained energy expenditure model, why cardio does not always produce the linear calorie burn people expect, and why the context of your diet matters. They cover metabolic adaptation, under-fueling in endurance and weight-class athletes, and why the body creates more friction as you get leaner or try to train hard on a fixed calorie budget.

The crew also gets practical about fat-loss plateaus, "weight-loss resistance," diet breaks, refeeds, and reverse dieting. Eric explains why tracking errors often masquerade as metabolic problems, why getting extremely lean carries real performance and lifestyle tradeoffs, and why slower timelines are often the smarter move. He also shares what the research actually says about using refeeds and diet breaks to preserve metabolism and why aggressively beginning recovery after a hard diet may be more effective than dragging out a reverse diet. Whether you are cutting for a weight-class sport, chasing a physique goal, or simply trying to lose body fat without losing your mind, this episode will help you make better decisions with your nutrition and training.

Links:

Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram

In this episode, OG Barbell Shrugged crew member Alex Maclin joins Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to talk nutrition for jiu-jitsu, combat sports, and high-performance training. Alex shares his evolution from overweight beginner to Olympic weightlifter, nutrition coach, and four-stripe brown belt, explaining how his personal nutrition shifted from fat loss to strength, aesthetics, and now athletic performance and recovery.

The crew breaks down practical fueling strategies for grapplers, including why total calories come first, why carbohydrates are king for high-intensity scrambles, and how protein, hydration, sodium, and nutrient timing all affect recovery and performance. Alex explains how to eat before training, what to use during longer or hotter sessions, why tournament-day nutrition must account for adrenaline and digestion, and how caffeine can help or hurt depending on arousal. Whether you train jiu-jitsu, CrossFit, weightlifting, or just want to perform better, this episode gives you a simple framework for eating like an athlete.

Links:

Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram

In this episode, Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash break down the real-world science of training for aesthetics: getting leaner, building muscle, and looking better without losing sight of performance, health, and longevity. Mike opens with a wild DEXA scan story about breast implants and body composition testing, explaining how implants can skew lean mass and bone density numbers. The takeaway is simple: body composition tools are useful, but only when you understand what they are actually measuring.

The crew then moves into the big rocks of physique change: nutrition, training volume, cardio, consistency, and choosing a style of training you can actually sustain. Travis shares how endurance work, reduced alcohol, better hydration, and family-wide nutrition habits helped him get leaner, while Doug and Mike explain why diet is usually the fastest lever for fat loss and lifting is the signal that helps preserve or build muscle. Whether you love bodybuilding, powerlifting, CrossFit, martial arts, climbing, or just want to look good and feel capable, the message is clear: train most days, eat mostly whole foods, and build habits you can repeat for years.

Links:

Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram

For years, one of the biggest criticisms of CrossFit has been that, Given every workout is different, it's difficult to measure and track training stress in a meaningful way. Dr. Jerry Mangine joins Doug Larson, Travis Mash, and Mike Lane to discuss a decade of research aimed at solving that problem. Jerry breaks down how his team analyzed every CrossFit Open workout ever performed, developed equations to quantify workload across different movements, and created a system for classifying workouts based on total work performed and the rate at which athletes complete it. The conversation explores why some workouts produce specific adaptations, how coaches can better manage training stress, and what the future of CrossFit programming might look like when workload can finally be measured objectively.

The discussion expands into broader athletic performance, including the impact of body type on CrossFit success, critical power testing, VO2 max, lactate tolerance, gymnastics versus weightlifting backgrounds, and how AI may soon automate performance analysis across sports. Jerry also shares his vision as founding director of Kennesaw State's new Human Sport Performance and Well-Being Research Center, where researchers are developing new technologies to help athletes and coaches make smarter decisions. Whether you're a CrossFit athlete, strength coach, sport scientist, or simply interested in how performance is measured and improved, this episode offers a fascinating look at where athletic monitoring and training optimization are headed next.

Links:

Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram

Peptides have exploded in popularity over the last few years, but separating legitimate science from marketing hype has become increasingly difficult. In this episode, Dr. Kyle Gillett joins Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash for a deep dive into the world of peptides, growth hormone secretagogues, GLP-1 medications, and emerging therapies that may shape the future of performance, recovery, body composition, and longevity. They unpack what peptides actually are, which compounds have meaningful clinical research behind them, and where caution is still warranted, especially when it comes to growth factors, angiogenesis, and potential cancer-related concerns.

The conversation covers BPC-157, TB-500, Tesamorelin, Retatrutide, Selank, PT-141, myostatin inhibitors, mitochondrial peptides, and the next generation of obesity and metabolic health drugs. Along the way, the group explores practical questions athletes and health-conscious individuals are asking every day: Can peptides help recovery? Are there compounds that improve cognition or libido? What are the tradeoffs of GLP-1 medications? And how close are we to drugs that can meaningfully increase muscle mass the way GLP-1s improve fat loss? Whether you're curious about performance enhancement, injury recovery, healthy aging, or simply trying to understand what all the peptide buzz is about, this episode provides a balanced, practical look at one of the fastest-moving areas in modern health and performance.

Links:

Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram

In this episode, Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash break down what it actually means to train tactical athletes such as police officers, firefighters, military personnel, SWAT teams, cadets, and first responders who may be called into high-stress physical situations at any time. The conversation starts with the Enhanced Games and the reality of performance-enhancing drugs in sport, then quickly shifts into the tactical world, where "second place" can mean getting hurt, losing control of a situation, or not making it home. Mike explains why the first step is always a job-task analysis: Is the athlete a cadet preparing for a career, a police officer who is always "in season," a firefighter working 24-hour shifts, or a military operator cycling between deployment and training blocks?

The team digs into the practical training model: tactical athletes need strength, aerobic capacity, anaerobic conditioning, mobility, grip, durability, and the ability to stay calm under stress. They discuss why training should usually be total-body, spread across the week, and conservative enough to avoid unnecessary soreness or injury while still building real capability. Travis explains how velocity-based training can keep athletes powerful without constantly maxing out, while Mike highlights exercise selection that "coaches itself," like front squats, goblet squats, kettlebell swings, thick-bar work, carries, and push presses. The big takeaway: tactical athletes do not need bodybuilding workouts or random hard training, they need specific, repeatable preparation that makes their body a reliable tool under pressure.

Links:

Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram

In this episode, strength coach, educator, and IFAST co-founder Mike Robertson joins Doug Larson, Dr. Mike Lane, and Coach Travis Mash to talk about how serious lifters and athletes can train hard without destroying their bodies in the process. Mike shares his path from early T-Nation contributor to gym owner and longtime coach, explaining how his background in biomechanics shaped the way he evaluates movement, manages athletes, and builds training systems that support long-term performance. The crew also reflects on the early 2000s strength culture, the lessons learned from powerlifting, and why the best athletes often need a coach who can pull them back before ego, pain, or poor recovery catches up with them.

The conversation gets into the practical side of staying healthy while still pushing performance: using force plate data and velocity-based training to make better decisions, watching for early signs of breakdown, and creating different exercise "buckets" for days when the body feels great, okay, or beat up. Mike explains why loss of hip internal rotation, lack of movement variability, and constantly chasing load can eventually lead to back, hip, or knee issues, even if the athlete feels fine for years. The team also breaks down how to train around pain and injury, when to adjust instead of quit, and why smart movement, mobility, isometrics, sled work, and lower-stress training days can keep athletes moving forward without digging a deeper recovery hole.

Links:

Doug Larson on InstagramCoach Travis Mash on Instagram