In today's episode Coach Andy Baker discusses the most common injuries he sees in barbell training and his strategies for reducing the likelihood of their occurence. The key word in the title is "mitigating" injuries, not preventing them! If you train hard for years, chances are you will deal with an injury at one point or another. While barbell training is a very safe activity, injuries do happen, regardless of how good your technique, programming, and recovery are. That said, with some...

At some point in a lifter's career, typically after the novice or early intermediate phase, the most reliable way to get stronger is to become more muscular, i.e. build muscle mass. To that end, the term "powerbuilding" has emerged to describe a hybrid approach of training the main barbell lifts (like a powerlifter) alongside a selection of supplemental lifts done for higher reps aimed at increasing muscular size (like a bodybuilder). While some people knock powerbuilding as a merely a clever...

In today's episide, show producer Trent Jones chats with Andy about his wide array of coaching and programming services. If it wasn't obvious from the variety of topics on the podcast thus far, Andy has a wide range of interests in fitness and he draws from a deep well of knowledge and practical experience when writing his programs. Whether you are looking for general strength and fitness, chasing numbers on the big barbell lifts, or building the best physique you can, Andy has a program for...

As the pendulum swings in the fitness world, the body part split or "bro split" has gone through it's ups and downs. For many years it was accepted as a classic way to train for physique, with many notable golden-era bodybuilders splitting up their weekly workload into various body part specific days. Then as evidence-based training came into vogue, the idea came under attack, with proponents going back and forth on whether the bro split was effective or a suboptimal waste of time. Various...

The pendulum swings on in the fitness industry, and right now "hypertrophy" is the hot topic (or as Andy likes to call it, bodybulding with a small "b"). Many people who got into powerlifting over the last decade and half, and subsequently retired from competition, have started looking for ways to train hard beyond the squat, bench, and deadlift, and bodybuilding is a natural progression. Influencers on YouTube and social media have jumped in, detailing their transition from powerlifting and...

Continuing the discussion from last week, Andy interviews Starting Strength Coach and nutrititonist Robert Santana about the effect of low carb diets on training and fat loss. They also discuss the role of insulin sensitivity in training, particularly for endormorphic body types, and how carb intake can be manipulated to keep energy in the gym while producing weight loss for "hard losers."   Weights & Plates Podcast Apple: ...

This week we're flipping things around and inviting Dr. Robert Santana, Starting Strength Coach and PhD Nutrition, onto the show to talk about all things nutrition, diet, and macros as they relate to training for strength and physique. In addition to his extensive academic training, Dr. Santana has spent over twenty years in the weight room and over a decade as a strength coach.  Thousands of hours of practical experience getting people strong, muscular, and lean have given him a unique...

Today's show is a simulcast with the Weights and Plates podcast. Andy was recently a guest on the Weights and Plates show, and as part of a podcast swap, we are airing Andy's interview from the show on both Weights and Plates and Baker Barbell Podcast. In the coming weeks, Andy will invite Dr. Robert Santana on the Baker Barbell Podcast to discuss nutrition issues related to training.   In the interview Andy addresses the difference between strength training and hypertrophy training, a...

Coaching can be a fun and highly rewarding profession, because you get to help people become better versions of themselves, gain confidence, and build more resilient bodies. One of the quickest ways to burn out from the profession, however, is to make financial mistakes. There are a number of financial pitfalls young coaches fall into when leaving their W-2 jobs and going into business for themselves, including saving for quarterly taxes, managing bank accounts, and setting aside money for...

After a brief hiatus, Andy is back! Today he breaks down the training program he used to help 71 year old powerlifter Shelly Stettner win the 2022 IPF World Championship in the Masters 4 division, 63kg weight class. Shelly has an unusual background for an elite powerlifter, first discovering the barbell at age 65. Despite her late start, she has trained diligently and consistently, setting regular PR's for years, including Master's World Records in the squat, bench press, deadlift, and total....

Andy fields questions from his inbox and his private Facebook group, ranging from how to effectively program running and strength training at the same time, how to incorporate hypertrophy movements in a home gym with limited equipment, and more.   Join the Baker Barbell Club Online for just $27/mo: https://www.andybaker.com/landing-page/   Cox Sauce BBQ Sauce -- Get One Free When You Buy Three! https://coxsaucebbqsauce.com   Andy Baker Blog: www.AndyBaker.com IG: @bakerbarbell ...

Andy invites Starting Strength Coach, Barbell Logic coach, and entrepreneur Cameron Cox to the show to talk about the coaching business, the importance of soft skills as a coach, why being called a personal trainer is not a bad thing, and how the gym shutdowns of 2020 drove him to produce Cox Sauce BBQ Sauce commercially.   Cox Sauce BBQ Sauce -- Get One Free When You Buy Three! https://coxsaucebbqsauce.com   Cameron Cox IG: @coachcamcox   Andy Baker Blog: www.AndyBaker.com IG:...

It's a common complaint for lifters becoming more and more advanced -- my workouts are taking too long! For lifters coming out of a Starting Strength style LP, for instance, and starting the Texas Method or some other popular 5x5 programs, they soon realize that doing five sets of five squats across takes a LONG time, and can be quite fatiguing too. And let's be honest, most of us have lives with higher priorities than training. So training needs to fit in a reasonable time frame, and leave...

Andy is running solo today, and sharing one of his favorite methods for building muscle in short, focused, and intense workouts. Many people, especially in the barbell trainign and powerlifting world, immediately associate bodybuilding with light weights, high rep sets and a lot of them. Andy has spoken in previous episodes about why bodybuilding requires progressive overload, via reps or weight, and why it doesn't even need to be high volume. A big influence on Andy's own programming...

Andy and Dan return to programming, today tackling the big picture behind advanced programming. Essentially, advanced programming picks up when linear progress has ended -- the novice sets daily, then biweekly intensity PR's (the weight on the bar), the intermediate sets weekly PR's. The advanced lifter hopefully still sets PR's on a regular basis, albeit on a longer timeline, but even then intensity PR's are not a sure thing every training cycle.   As Andy points out, PR's for the advanced...

Andy and Dan take a break from programming and nutrition talk to chat about the business of coaching. Whether you're a professional trainer or coach, or exploring the idea, you'll need a good grasp of marketing fundamentals. Andy walks through some mistakes he made early on in his career, as well as mistakes he sees other coaches and gym owners make consistently, and some strategies to avoid them. These include identifying your target clientele, following the three "M's" of marketing, and...

Not everyone wants to be a powerlifter, or a strength athlete, or, frankly, even to lift heavy weights past a certain point. If that's you, or someone you're working with, then it's important to understand that traditional strength programs like the Novice Linear Progression probably aren't a good fit. That doesn't mean that this population, the so-called "general fitness" population, can't get stronger and build a better physique. It just means their training needs to be structured in a way...

Andy and Dan discuss how to organize your program during a cut. Whether you have a lot of weight to lose or just a little body fat to trim off, you will be operating in a caloric deficit, meaning your recovery resources won't be optimal for strength training. Consequently you have to throw out the idea of making linear strength gains (unless you are a rank novice) and instead focus on preserving as much muscle mass as possible.   Strength gains are still possible, but they are no longer the...

Andy and Dan discuss a perenially popular topic for lifters and trainees everywhere -- how do I do cardio? When, how much, what kind... it's a question that comes up for coaches all the time, and it's worth exploring the various ways it can be approached. As Andy points out, people train for a variety of reasons, but only a small percentage of the trainees at any given gym are serious strength athletes or sport athletes. Most people are training to be generally healthy, so a good coach should...

The goal of physique training, or hypertrophy training, is pretty simple -- get bigger. Increase the size of the muscle bellies. Measuring progress is a trickier proposition, however. Muscle growth takes time, and you cannot expect to see the measuring tape on your biceps going up on a weekly, or even monthly basis. So how DO you measure progress and know if you are getting anywhere?   Similar to strength training, setting PR's consistently over time is an excellent predictor of progress....

And and Dan continue their exploration of the fundamentals of physique training and muscle growth, discussing the types of exercises best suited to stimulate hypertrophy.   The mindset of the lifter is equally important. A lifter that can develop a mind-muscle connection between the movement his is executing and the muscle mass being stimulated will grow more than the lifter just going through the motions. As Andy points out, it's not just about accumulating sets and reps. It's about...

Are you looking to move beyond a simple strength program and focus on building more muscle, shoring up weak points in your physique, or just try something new? Many lifters complete a novice linear progression and some form of early intermediate strength training (such as Texas Method or HLM) only to find themselves lost as to what to do next. Others are simply burnt out by all the compond lifting and are looking to bring some fun back into their training. Andy lays out a road map for...

Coach Andy and Dan share their favorite accessory exercises for building muscle and driving strength in the main lifts.   Dorian Yates "Blood and Guts" https://youtu.be/9SwG3BbvC9I   Andy Baker on Paused High Bar Squats https://www.andybaker.com/why-i-like-paused-high-bar-squats-for-quad-hypertrophy/   Andy Baker Blog: www.AndyBaker.com IG: @bakerbarbell Owner of Kingwood Strength & Conditioning Co-author of Practical Programming for Strength Training Co-author of The...

Coach Andy and Coach Dan discuss the proper use of accessory lifts for the post-novice lifter, and how they can be an important tool for building muscle mass. Many lifters use accessories improperly, however, by either failing to progressively overload them over time or not performing them in a manner that produces hypertophy stimulus.   As Andy points out, all lifters can learn a lot about hypertrophy by thinking like bodybuilders and obtaining a strong mind-muscle connection, an intuitive...