Performance Brain Health - Part 1 with Dr. Tommy Wood, Doug Larson Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #832
Release Date: 01/21/2026
Performance Brain Health - Part 1 with Dr. Tommy Wood, Doug Larson Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #832
Barbell Shrugged
In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, Doug Larson is joined by longtime co-host Travis Mash and new co-host Dr. Mike Lane for a return visit from one of the show’s most popular guests, Dr. Tommy Wood. Tommy breaks down the core thesis of his new book, The Stimulated Mind (releasing March 24), which uses dementia prevention as the headline but is really about boosting cognition at every stage of life. The crew sets the tone early: brain health is not “old people stuff,” it’s performance, learning, and resilience, built daily through how you live and how you train. Tommy makes the case...
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Pain-Free Performance with Dr. John Rusin, Doug Larson Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #831
Barbell Shrugged
In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, Doug Larson is joined by longtime co-host Travis Mash and new co-host Michael Lane as they welcome back John Rusin for his first appearance on the show in five years. The conversation opens with a candid transition moment for the podcast, acknowledging Anders Varner’s departure and setting the stage for a new chapter of Barbell Shrugged. From there, the crew dives straight into Rusin’s background in sports performance, physical therapy, and global coaching, including his work with elite athletes, Olympic committees, and thousands of coaches through his...
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Our New Co-Host Deadlifts 700lbs with Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #830
Barbell Shrugged
In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, Doug Larson and Travis Mash officially welcome Dr. Mike Lane as the show’s new co-host. Mike shares his full origin story, from growing up a sports-loving kid in St. Louis, to discovering strength and conditioning in college, to earning his PhD and becoming a professor of exercise physiology. Along the way, he reflects on the mentors who shaped his thinking, including time spent around Westside Barbell, Olympic lifting culture, and elite academic labs that blended hard training with hard science. The conversation dives deep into the intersection of...
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How Circadian Rhythms Shape Strength, Recovery, and Health with Dr. Karen Esser #829
Barbell Shrugged
In this episode, Dr. Karen Esser Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology and Aging at the University of Florida joins the crew to break down one of the most overlooked performance variables in human physiology: circadian timing. After a career spent studying muscle adaptation, Dr. Esser shifted her research toward the molecular clocks inside our tissues, uncovering how every cell in the body keeps its own time. She explains how these clocks govern fuel storage, protein repair, metabolic readiness, and ultimately the way muscle responds to training. The team digs into what these...
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Menopause, Weight Gain and Hormones with Fat Loss Expert Dr. Bill Campbell #828
Barbell Shrugged
In this episode, Dr. Bill Campbell returns to the show to discuss a major pivot in his research from building muscle and optimizing fat loss to understanding menopause and its effects on women's body composition. After watching his wife struggle through a severe perimenopause transition that resisted every traditional fat loss strategy, Campbell uncovered a massive blind spot in the scientific literature: almost no research exists on fit, resistance trained women going through menopause. His public comments sparked hundreds of messages from women describing the same struggles including...
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Black Root Recovery: The Multi‑Modality Recovery Sauna Built for Veterans, Athletes, and High Performers #827
Barbell Shrugged
Former Marine and general contractor Andrew Kavanaugh joins the crew to share the origin story of Black Root Recovery, a company he founded after watching too many of his fellow Marines struggle physically, mentally, and emotionally after returning home. What started as a personal quest to rebuild his health led to a 90-pound weight loss, the elimination of sleep apnea and nightmares, and a profound shift in cognitive clarity and emotional resilience. Andrew combined the modalities that changed his own life (grounding, infrared therapy, red-light therapy, and traditional sauna heat) into a...
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Ben Johns - The Most Dominant Pickleball Athlete In The World #826
Barbell Shrugged
In this episode, the world’s #1 pickleball player, Ben Johns, joins Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane to unpack what it really takes to stay at the top of one of the fastest-growing sports on the planet. Ben walks through the insane travel schedule, the perpetual in-season demands, and the growing physical toll of a sport played in deep athletic stances, high-velocity lateral movements, and multi-hour tournament days. For the past year, Ben has partnered with RAPID Health Optimization to build a data-driven system around sleep, recovery, hydration, nutrition, and...
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MRI-based Muscle Analysis with Dr. Doug Goldstein #825
Barbell Shrugged
In this episode, the Barbell Shrugged crew explores how next-generation MRI muscle analysis is transforming the way high-performing athletes train, recover, and prevent injury. Dr. Doug Goldstein walks Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Travis Mash through Doug Larson’s full Springbok Analytics scan a 3D “digital twin” of his musculoskeletal system that reveals muscle volume, asymmetries, and tissue quality with a level of precision traditional assessments can’t match. The team breaks down how this data gives coaches a clearer understanding of the body’s true strengths, weak links, and...
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Precision Muscle Analysis with Matt Brown of Springbok Analytics #824
Barbell Shrugged
In this episode, Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Travis Mash sit down with Matt Brown, Director of Business Development at Springbok Analytics, to explore the cutting edge world of MRI based muscle analysis. Matt breaks down the origins of Springbok, how the company grew from a university research lab solving cerebral palsy surgical problems into one of the most advanced muscle segmentation platforms on the planet, and why professional sports teams, medical researchers, and longevity practitioners are all adopting this technology. From 15 minute full body protocols to AI driven segmentation of...
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Measuring Muscle Mass Percentage with Dr. Chris Perry, Anders Varner, Travis Mash and Doug Larson #823
Barbell Shrugged
In this week’s episode of Barbell Shrugged, Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, and Dr. Chris Perry dive deep into the real science of muscle mass, why it’s the single most important tissue in the human body and what happens when you don’t have enough of it. They cover everything from how muscle mass impacts disease risk, hormone balance, metabolism, and injury prevention to why being “under-muscled” may be just as dangerous as being overweight. Dr. Perry explains how strength training and nutrition can reverse age-related muscle loss and why the decade between your...
info_outlineIn this episode of Barbell Shrugged, Doug Larson is joined by longtime co-host Travis Mash and new co-host Dr. Mike Lane for a return visit from one of the show’s most popular guests, Dr. Tommy Wood. Tommy breaks down the core thesis of his new book, The Stimulated Mind (releasing March 24), which uses dementia prevention as the headline but is really about boosting cognition at every stage of life. The crew sets the tone early: brain health is not “old people stuff,” it’s performance, learning, and resilience, built daily through how you live and how you train.
Tommy makes the case that “optimization” only works when it fits real life, and that the brain adapts like the body: sleep, nutrition, and exercise support it, but you still have to “train the brain” with demanding learning and skills. He outlines a practical learning dose-response, roughly 30–90 minutes of deep challenge per session, 2–3 times per week as a sweet spot for consolidation, while acknowledging the power of daily touchpoints for habit formation (Doug’s Duolingo streak and the “don’t break the chain” approach). From there, they go deep on exercise modalities and cognition: aerobic work and interval training improving hippocampal function (memory), high-intensity work potentially driving brain benefits through lactate → local BDNF, and coordinative/open-skill sports (racket sports, dancing, martial arts) producing outsized brain returns for the same physical strain.
The conversation closes with a fast but important run through risk, genetics, and lifestyle: Tommy explains ApoE4 as a risk multiplier that’s highly environment-dependent, amplifying bad inputs (inflammation, poor metabolic health) but also amplifying the benefits of doing the basics well. They hit the big nutrition levers for cognition; omega-3s, key B vitamins (methylation), vitamin D, iron, plus polyphenol-rich foods (berries, cocoa, coffee/tea), and squash the common “red wine” rationalization by emphasizing net outcomes (sleep and brain volume matter). Finally, Tommy emphasizes the under-rated keystone: social connection and pro-social behavior, arguing that the Mediterranean “diet” is really a Mediterranean lifestyle, and that isolation can erase many of the benefits of even a perfect nutrition plan.
Links:
Doug Larson on Instagram
Coach Travis Mash on Instagram