#103 - Meet Brad: Using the Barbell to Conquer Back Pain and Obesity
Release Date: 08/21/2020
#122 - Don't Call It Come Back! Power Cleans for the Masters Lifter
40fit Radio
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...
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#121 - We're Back!
40fit Radio
After a several month hiatus, Darin and Trent are back with 40fit Radio!
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#120 - ALL or NOTHING: Getting Away from the Extremes in Your Health and Fitness
40fit Radio
Coach Darin has said it before, humans like to "complicate to validate." The bigger, faster, more complex, more "science-y," the better! Right? Likewise, the idea that fitness is an intense, all-in pursuit pervades media and popular training programs. Frankly, it's exhausting!
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#119 - Coaches' Corner: Low Stress Programming for Intermediate Lifters
40fit Radio
Darin, Trent, and Charity convene for another coaches corner, this time offering some strategies for lowering systemic stress while programming for the intermediate lifter.
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#118 - Exploring the Micronutrients: Vitamins and Minerals
40fit Radio
Coach D and Trent discuss the most important vitamins you should be getting from your diet and supplements.
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#117 - Why You Should Stop Worrying About PR's
40fit Radio
Coach D, Trent, and Charity discuss the tendency of strength coaches and athletes to get hung up chasing PR's on the bar, and missing the forest for the trees -- that is, the greater PR's in life such as raising good families, growing mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
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#116 - Cardio Is Not a Magic Bullet
40fit Radio
It's January, and that means there are millions of people trying to make good on their New Years' Resolutions. For many, this resolution involves losing weight, cutting body fat, and "leaning up." And predictably many resolutioners first instinct is to hit the cardio machines -- treadmills, ellipticals, exercise bikes, etc.
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#115 - Getting Back Into the Gym After COVID
40fit Radio
Coach Charity Hambrick returns to the show to discuss her experience contracting COVID-19 and her slow road to get back into training afterward. Though she contracted COVID back in October 2020, Charity had lingering fatigue and muscle cramps for weeks, and loss of smell that lasted for over three months. Despite the mental blow of losing her training momentum -- she had been setting PR's just prior to getting COVID -- Charity has consistently hit the gym and is regaining her strength levels.
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#114 - Masters Programming: Volume vs Intensity for Longevity
40fit Radio
In today's episode, Coach D and Coach Trent discuss the concept of selecting appropriate volume and intensity for a Masters athlete. These are two of the main programming variables, and all athletes need a blend of intensity (heavy-ness) and volume (how many reps) to drive adaptation in their desired physical skill: strength, conditioning, hypertrophy, etc. And in general, both intensity and volume must go up over time to increase the amount of stress and therefore drive more adaptation.
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#113 - Getting Warm When the Weather Is Cold
40fit Radio
In the strength community, the typical advice for warmups is to start with the first barbell lift you will be performing. For many people this will be the squat, so the warm-up would consist of two sets of five with the empty bar, then a few progressively heavier sets until the lifter is ready for his working sets. It's quick, efficient, and, prepares most lifters for the task at hand -- squatting. Masters athletes, however, may find that they need more than the barbell to get warm before their workout.
info_outlineIn another 40fit athlete profile, Fort Worth Strength member Brad Lamar joins the show to talk about his amazing journey of losing 50lbs and nearly 10in off his waist while getting stronger and leaner than he's ever been.
Brad is a 49-year old IT professional in the healthcare industry who began training with a history of inactivity and back pain. At 5' 11" and 285lbs he was significantly obese. However, he began a novice linear progression with the barbell, lifting 3x per week with the big lifts: squat, press, bench press, and deadlift. As he gained strength, his metabolism increased, and with careful attention to his diet, he began to lose body fat while gaining lots of muscle mass.
After a year of training, Brad had dropped from 285lbs down to 235lbs, and from a 53in to a 44in waist. During that period he halved his body fat percentage as well, from 40% to 20%. Now here's the interesting part. In his second year of training, Brad gained a little weight, up to 240, but his waist remained stable, increasing just one inch to 45in. His body fat percentage continued to drop however, down to 17% by the end of the year. Not surprisingly, he hit all time PR's as well, squatting in the high 200's, deadlifting in the mid 300's, benching 270lbs, and pressing 160lbs.
Like Clif, who we interviewed last week, the key to Brad's success is hidden in his consistency. He rarely misses workouts, and he eats the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day. He tracks his food every so often to ensure his macros are staying on target, but by being consistent in his breakfast and lunch habits he has freedom to eat out at a restaurant or participate in his family's pizza Friday (now a family tradition), in which they prepare and bake their own gourmet pizza at home.
It didn't always come easy, however. On two separate occasions, Brad's back pain flared up in a big way, causing severe sciatic nerve pain that made him unable to sit for more than a few minutes at a time. Sleep was challenging as well, as the pain often woke him up in the middle of the night. Brad continued to train, however, while seeking medical advice and an MRI of his back. His surgeon gave him an epidural to relieve a bulging disc in the L4-L5 region, which was pressing on the nerve root. The procedure was successful, and within 6 weeks his pain symptoms resolved and he was able to resume normal barbell training again.
Like Clif, Brad moderates his squat frequency and intensity, back squatting heavy once per week and performing a lighter squat variation on another day (lately a front squat). He also leg presses in the middle of the week to get additional leg work without the added compression force on his lumbar spine that a low bar back squat would provide.
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