Gus's Barbell Club Podcast

When the Oak Street location for Gus’s Barbell Club opened, my wife got me a gift. A United Federation of Planets flag, from Star Trek. It’s a nod to the Klingon flag that hangs at the Wichita Falls Athletic Club, Mark Rippetoe’s gym where he hosts the Starting Strength Seminar. But it’s also a reminder […]

Should training be fun? Doing some amount of exercise is infinitely more valuable to your health than doing none. Most people currently do nothing, and if focusing on something fun makes you more likely to perform the task then yes, fun must be added. So if that’s you: quit reading and go have some fun. […]

Most people don’t even do the big things. But everyone that’s come into my gym has had some worry about at least one of the little things. Big Things You can pick one of these and perform/improve/invest in it today. And you can do that every day of your life. Little Things We can go […]

Learning to cook is hard. Like all skills, it takes a lot of practice and experience before you feel confident in what you’re doing. You’ll eat some less-than-tasty meals in the process. But most overlooked is that learning to cook isn’t just about the cooking. In fact I’d dissect it down into at least seven […]

Different philosophies abound in the world of fitness. Just like the Cynic versus the Epicurean of ancient Greece, the CrossFitter and Powerlifter care a great deal about their disagreements. To the outside world, both appear to be zealous on trivial matters. To the un-thinking, joining with either would be significant upgrade to their direction in […]

Simple thought today: lock out your knees at the top of your squat. Lock out your elbows at the top of your press and bench press. Every rep. Rhythm One argument I’ve been told for not locking out every rep is how it affects the rhythm of multiple reps. By stopping short of lockout the […]

One of my passions is chess. As chess players compete in tournaments, they earn a rating of their performance. If you’re playing an opponent rated much higher than you, and win, your rating will go up significantly. At the time of the game, you were “under-rated” and the math needs to correct that. Win against […]

Improving a skill relies upon feedback. Ideally you find an objective measure that correlates with the skill, and chart that measurement consistently. As the metric improves, you can be confident your skill improvement was a driving factor. This objective feedback is invaluable as evidence of where your efforts have brought you, but fall short when […]

A hallmark of training at Gus’s Barbell Club is emphasis on consistency. A typical adult with specifically lofty aspirations could easily require over 2 hours of training five days a week. High-level athletes could double that for skills practice and conditioning. Most American adults train zero days a week. It is the opinion of the […]

Every athlete should use the simplest program that progresses them toward their goal. Think about advocating the opposite: “Every athlete should use the most complex program that progresses them to their goal.” It doesn’t even pass the sniff test, right? Many people changing their habits assume it must be a complex or difficult. Ten different […]