Iron Minds

Sam Bolotta

Great powerlifting isn't just built in the gym. It's built in the conversations between coaches: the debates about programming, the lessons from failed attempts, the ideas most people never get to hear. Iron Minds brings those conversations to you. Every episode features a coach worth knowing, talking about the work they actually do and why they do it that way.

  1. 2d ago

    The Coach Who Does Not Track Any Metrics w/ Giuseppe Gargiulo

    In the thirteenth episode of Iron Minds, Samuele sits down with Giuseppe Gargiulo — one of the most decorated coaches in Italy — to talk about Soviet vs American programming, why he ranks technique above programming, and why he thinks coaching is an art rather than a science. 0:00 - Intro 0:47 - Junior Worlds, Tommaso Buscaroli and three Italian records 7:47 - Italy is pushing its juniors too fast 9:36 - Build strength all year, express it only in competition 12:43 - Why he never writes RPE on variations 16:09 - Two tapers: the cyclic and the Soviet acyclic 22:12 - Ado Gruzza, Sheiko, and learning the Russian method 28:04 - What he changed his mind about in ten years 32:54 - Italy's junior injury problem, and the one who survived it 37:59 - Volume, frequency and pacing are all connected 48:00 - Ranking the six variables 51:50 - Why technique sits above programming 56:35 - "Coaching is an art, it's not a science" 1:01:29 - Being friends with your athletes, and losing authority 1:05:35 - Can an elite athlete have bad technique? 1:11:39 - Against the body self-organizing 1:16:53 - One bad session — and when he lies to an athlete 1:25:02 - Why he doesn't trust velocity trackers 1:40:29 - Powerlifting in ten years: the professionalization problem 1:48:32 - The question nobody asks him Samuele: https://www.instagram.com/giulianodontario/ Giuseppe: https://www.instagram.com/giuseppe_gargiulo_ebbast/

  2. Aug 7

    Most of the Individualization Happens Outside the Gym w/ Meghan Scanlon

    In the this new episode of Iron Minds, Samuele sits down with Meg Scanlon to talk about where individualization actually belongs, what actually causes plateaus, and how to chase your genetic potential without letting the sport eat your life. 0:00 - Intro 2:50 - Gymnastics, soccer, marathons: the road into powerlifting 6:56 - The squat-every-day phase, and why fun still matters 10:17 - People respond similarly — individualization lives outside training 11:12 - Getting closer to genetic potential means giving things up 23:53 - Tonnage on squat and bench, deadlift as a byproduct 28:58 - What actually causes plateaus 35:52 - Her biggest risk: going all in on powerlifting 37:10 - Training that fits your life, not the reverse 43:49 - Ranking the six factors 46:43 - Programming vs. coaching — the underrated half 50:58 - "It's your life": lifestyle, expectations, and keeping people lifting 55:40 - What technique actually is, and the technique continuum 59:52 - Over-cueing, perfectionism, and chasing perfect reps 1:13:04 - Two variables: average intensity and tonnage 1:19:25 - Autoregulation without fearing hard sets 1:22:22 - Intuition: what makes good coaches great 1:26:00 - Injury risk and the moment load starts climbing 1:38:12 - "I don't care what's on the barbell" Samuele: https://www.instagram.com/giulianodontario/ Meg: https://www.instagram.com/megscanlift/

  3. Jul 29

    What Coaches Get Wrong When a Program Stops Working w/ Marcellus Williams

    In the eleventh episode of Iron Minds, Samuele sits down with Marcellus Williams - the "swolefessor" - to talk about why pacing, not structure, decides your best blocks, how genetics really works, and why powerlifting undersells sports psychology. 0:00 - Intro 0:42 - Coming off IPF Worlds with eight clients, and what's next 2:59 - How long he's really been coaching 3:46 - Calisthenics with his dad, boxing, and lifting at 17 7:20 - Discovering raw powerlifting in college 9:10 - Doing everything to the best of your ability 10:11 - The quality he values most: truly caring about people 12:16 - Why a client's trust is a big deal 15:54 - The biggest influence: his dad, the pastor and firefighter 18:11 - Knowing when to be tender, when to be blunt, and saying "I don't know" 22:20 - Ranking the six variables 24:17 - Genetics sets your ceiling; effort fills it 28:53 - Why we shouldn't obsess over a ceiling we can't see 33:51 - Why powerlifting underrates sports psychology 35:28 - Why so few coaches talk about the mental side 37:06 - Retention, and the Brandon Petrus story 38:55 - Is good technique a point or a spectrum? 40:32 - Principles over positions: consistent, repeatable technique 44:09 - Guiding the athlete "within a box" as they change 47:29 - Technique, hypertrophy, and missing the forest for the trees 49:39 - Cue first: the least invasive change wins 51:43 - Symmetry for performance, not for its own sake 55:19 - Top-down vs bottom-up, and the five-hours-of-sleep trap 57:14 - Deadlifting first: a principle, not a problem 59:19 - The low-volume-responder myth 1:02:23 - The common thread in every great block: pacing 1:05:33 - The one variable he'd track 1:07:53 - Static vs dynamic RPE 1:12:01 - The fatigue-to-fitness ratio he wishes existed 1:18:45 - Velocity tracking, and why it's the least useful tool 1:20:48 - Variable percentage-based training 1:24:14 - Intuition vs data, and how the curve bends back 1:26:16 - The Ashton week-four story that became a metric 1:30:26 - The Agatha six-days-a-week thought experiment 1:38:18 - The most common cause of plateaus 1:40:36 - Powerlifting in 2035 1:45:55 - The question nobody asks: legacy Samuele: https://www.instagram.com/giulianodontario/ Marcellus: https://www.instagram.com/theswolefessor/

  4. Jul 22

    RPE Is Overrated w/ Anas Anbar

    In the tenth episode of Iron Minds, Samuele sits down with Anas Anbar to talk about why you can't separate fatigue from the stimulus that builds strength, and what that means for how we program, cue, and read a lifter. 0:00 - Intro 1:55 - Growing up on soccer in Jordan, then finding the gym 4:26 - The coach's line that stuck: "the gains begin after you get tired" 8:05 - The most important quality in a coach 10:06 - What he changed his mind about: expanding the dosage continuum 11:46 - Hot take: RPE is overrated 17:04 - The John Song contrast — RPE as a teaching tool 18:38 - Second hot take: the golden microcycle will die out 20:26 - You can't separate the fatigue from the stimulus 22:59 - Why you shouldn't be scared of fatigue 24:36 - Strength depends on other qualities you have to build 30:47 - Raise the floor, don't just chase the ceiling 36:13 - Top-down vs bottom-up, and why it depends on the lifter 41:43 - Powerlifting as a moving target 44:04 - Is there objectively good and bad technique? 47:35 - Reading technique: levers, hip drop, center mass 53:24 - Coaching technique: environment vs cueing vs learning 1:03:53 - The most common cause of plateau right now 1:06:34 - What success looks like: force production, not top sets 1:10:39 - Velocity, and force as mass times acceleration 1:16:24 - Ranking the six variables 1:23:53 - How injuries actually happen: stress vs capacity 1:29:23 - The mocha-pot analogy for dosing stress 1:32:19 - Data vs intuition 1:38:21 - Powerlifting in ten years 1:47:25 - The question nobody asks: projects and gratitude Samuele: https://www.instagram.com/giulianodontario/ Anas: https://www.instagram.com/anasanbar/

  5. Jul 15

    There's No Direct Relationship Between Effort and Results w/ Filippo d'Albero

    In the ninth episode of Iron Minds, Samuele sits down with Filippo d'Albero - a former MMA fighter and engineer who came to powerlifting through injury rehab and turned it into a data-driven coaching practice and a decade of content - to talk about genetics, technique, data vs intuition, and what actually moves the needle for a lifter. 0:00 - Intro 0:50 - From MMA and a shoulder surgery to powerlifting 5:36 - AI and data analysis in powerlifting 12:42 - Who shaped him: Jason Tremblay & Eric Helms 15:41 - What he learns from his athletes 21:41 - Ranking the 6 variables (genetics first) 30:54 - Hot take: the underdog can't beat talent 40:51 - Why lifters really plateau 49:01 - What good technique actually is 55:28 - The squat: why the hips shoot up 57:04 - Fix the oven, don't split the line (the donut analogy) 1:07:20 - Programming: theory vs what works (Brett Gibbs) 1:15:37 - Data vs intuition 1:21:15 - The one variable to track: estimated 1RM 1:23:12 - VBT, RPE and the encoder 1:33:11 - Injury risk 1:37:54 - Powerlifting in 10 years 1:42:48 - The question no one asks Samuele: https://www.instagram.com/giulianodontario/ Filippo: https://www.instagram.com/filippo_dalbero/

  6. Jul 8

    There's a Difference Between Fatigue and Your Movement Crapping the Bed w/ John Song

    In the eighth episode of Iron Minds, Samuele sits down with John Song — one of the most successful coaches in the world as well as a physical therapist — to talk about how he reads technique, writes programs, and manages fatigue for elite lifters. 0:00 - Intro 0:42 - From violin and wrestling to powerlifting and PT 5:09 - Coach McHugh and what makes a coach dependable 10:01 - What his athletes taught him 13:25 - Ranking the six variables of long-term success 18:22 - Why psychology is the long-term end-all 20:58 - Good technique as a boundary, not a point 31:07 - Programming: fundamentals-first vs bottom-up 37:39 - How a lifter should feel heading into a meet 42:50 - RPE/RIR vs percentages vs velocity 46:49 - Coaching intent and constant-velocity squatting 49:26 - Angelo's ultra-slow squat, explained 51:40 - The most common cause of plateaus 54:16 - Data vs intuition when writing programs 56:53 - The role of AI in powerlifting 1:01:31 - Where injury risk really comes from 1:06:04 - Where powerlifting will be in ten years 1:09:13 - The question nobody asks Samuele: https://www.instagram.com/giulianodontario/ John: https://www.instagram.com/john_song_dpt/

  7. Jul 1

    Technique Is the Most Overhyped Thing in Powerlifting w/ Youssuf El Adlani

    In the seventh episode of Iron Minds, Samuele sits down with Youssuf El Adlani to talk about why an athlete's mindset matters more than genetics, technique or programming, and how he adapts the method to the lifter instead of the other way around. 0:00 - Intro 0:47 - From tennis and martial arts to powerlifting 2:36 - Rafael Nadal and his first coach Anthony Graziani 6:33 - Ranking the 6 variables: mindset #1, technique last 10:57 - Being relentless & the comparison trap 16:37 - Diagnosing a plateaued lifter 20:33 - Finding the pattern & coaching block-to-block 27:25 - How a block should feel & back-end deloads 30:43 - The one variable to track: average intensity 32:38 - Quality of work over tonnage 36:35 - Reactive coaching, RPE & the 5x5 question 41:14 - Can AI and data analytics help powerlifting? 46:03 - Intuition stories: Noemi Alabert & the junk-volume lifter 52:02 - Adapt the method to the athlete, not the reverse 57:41 - Good vs optimal technique & submaximal loads 1:05:29 - Velocity tracking as a monitoring tool 1:10:08 - Changing his mind & the women/volume hot take 1:14:34 - What really drives injury risk 1:17:49 - The future: 10 years, the Olympics & Sheffield 1:23:36 - Getting through the lows Samuele: https://www.instagram.com/giulianodontario/ Youssuf: https://www.instagram.com/youssuf_el_adlani/

  8. Jun 24

    I Went Two Years Without a Total PR — and a Lot of It Was a Mental Block w/ Matthew Henry

    In the sixth episode of Iron Minds, Samuele sits down with Matthew Henry — an Irish powerlifting coach, sports and exercise science graduate, and elite lifter heading to Worlds — to talk about why most plateaus are psychological, how to build and ride momentum, and why he keeps a toolbox of methods instead of a single doctrine. 0:00 - Intro 1:04 - Who Matt was before powerlifting 5:19 - The coach who shaped him & talent that works hard 8:46 - Ranking the six variables of strength 13:39 - Coaching technique: cues vs programming 16:09 - Reacting to a bad session & stacking the cards 20:32 - Diagnosing the stuck intermediate lifter 25:51 - Why lifters plateau & the junior-to-open crisis 30:01 - Momentum vs forcing progress: Jordan's road to Worlds 35:51 - RPE, percentages & velocity in prescription 41:11 - The one metric that tracks real progress 45:34 - Velocity drop-off & work capacity 48:20 - Top-down vs bottom-up programming 53:14 - Brett Gibbs & the work-capacity debate 59:16 - Intuition vs data 1:05:59 - Hot take: stop taking powerlifting so seriously 1:08:10 - What he changed his mind about 1:11:18 - The future of elite coaching 1:17:38 - Legacy & the question he wishes he'd be asked Samuele: https://www.instagram.com/giulianodontario/ Matt: https://www.instagram.com/mhenry94/

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About

Great powerlifting isn't just built in the gym. It's built in the conversations between coaches: the debates about programming, the lessons from failed attempts, the ideas most people never get to hear. Iron Minds brings those conversations to you. Every episode features a coach worth knowing, talking about the work they actually do and why they do it that way.

Information

  • Creator
    Sam Bolotta
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Sam Bolotta
  • Show Website
    Iron Minds

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