Iron Culture Eric Helms & Omar Isuf

The trio is back, and this time to discuss the science of saturated fat. For decades, saturated fat was widely blamed for a dramatic rise in rates of obesity and heart disease. In recent years, that narrative has been challenged by proponents of increasingly popular ketogenic and carnivorous diets. For many, the back and forth on this topic is dizzying, and confusing. Fortunately, we have Dr. Trexler to walk us through several recent studies to help determine if saturated fat is actually inherently more fattening than other fat sources, either via its impact on energy expenditure or appetite, and then how it plays out in the real world, and finally, to discuss what you need to know, and what - if anything - you should change about your diet.

When people think of “good coaching” in the evidence-based community their first thoughts are often related to whether or not the coach is up to date with the science and whether they use pseudoscience in practice. So does that mean that every coach from the 1990s and prior was a bad coach? Is good coaching actually determined by the methods you use, or something else? Can you be a bad coach while also being up to date with science? In this classic duo episode, Omar and Eric dive into the key qualities they think good coaches possess, and explain why the methods you use are not the same as the skills of delivering, implementing, adapting, and communicating them or the motivations behind your efforts to do so.

One of the most common recommendations a personal trainer or dietitian might make to someone embarking on a weight loss journey, is to drink more water. It’s a basic behavioural recommendation, like going on walks, eating more fruit, vegetables and lean protein, adopting a consistent sleep schedule, and engaging in regular exercise; all solid recommendations. Being hydrated is certainly important for health, wellbeing and performance, but is there actually evidence that drinking water will aid weight loss? Tune into this deep dive by Dr Trexler as he breaks it down and explains why drinking more water is great advice, but probably not for the reasons you think.
00:00 Please send us your sugar-alcohol protein bars
08:29 A segue to the topic: some alternatives to sugar-alcohols and what do if you catch Trexler eating a bunch of protein bars
MASS Research Review https://massresearchreview.com/ 
14:21 The throwaway line: drink water to lose weight
Chen 2024 Water Intake and Adiposity Outcomes among Overweight and Obese Individuals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38612997/
Khil 2024 Water intake and obesity: By amount, timing, and perceived temperature of drinking water https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38662725/ 
35:07 Trexler’s biggest takeaways from the article
42:50 Tying it together with some Iron Culture lore
50:26 How much water do you actually need to drink?
Yamada 2022 Variation in human water turnover associated with environmental and lifestyle factors https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36423296/
1:03:15 Meal pre-loading? 
Parretti 2015 Efficacy of water preloading before main meals as a strategy for weight loss in primary care patients with obesity: RCT https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26237305/
Van Walleghen 2007 Pre-meal water consumption reduces meal energy intake in older but not younger subjects https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17228036/
1:07:38 Closing out

Powerlifters use techniques to milk every last kilo out of their bench press, including wide grips, tightly wound wrist wraps, leg drive, and – the most hated technique in the comment section – an arched-back to reduce the range of motion. Indeed, it can get so heated in the comments it likely even influenced an IPF rule change last year. But how many kilos does an arch really give you? How many bench pressers did this rule change impact, and was there really a need for the rule changes? Further, why do we apply a different standard for what is considered “cheating” to different lifts or athletic movements, like technical manipulation in high jump, or weightlifting? In this episode you’ll get the full complement of the Iron Culture themes: we discuss the current culture around the IPF rule change and contemporary perspectives on arched bench press, the history of the clean and press in Olympic weightlifting up to 1972 which has some very interesting parallels, and finally a recently published study which attempted to quantify how much an arch increases bench press 1RM.
00:00 Intro to an episode about when Powerlifting was Powerlifting
03:33 The good old IPF and their regulations
08:40 The bench press rule change
15:23 The motivating factor for the rule change
20:01 Trexler’s technique and thoughts on the rules
Barbend article: https://barbend.com/ipf-bench-press-rule-change-2023/
26:22 The history of Olympic weightlifting and Powerlifting and the change in rules
38:39 The Fosbury flop and the perception of different movements and innovations
44:52 Athletes finding ways to maximise performances within rules 
57:16 A recent study on arching in the bench press
Bartolomei 2024 Flat-Back vs. Arched-Back Bench Press: Examining the Different Techniques Performed by Power Athletes https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38551927/
1:05:38 The nature of the fragile ego and the final point on the perspective of the spectator

Fresh off of their successful doctoral defenses, Lauren and Kim join Iron Culture to discuss all things menstrual-cycle related for lifters! Dr. Helms had the pleasure of mentoring Kim, who recently completed her PhD at AUT, in which she surveyed and monitored the menstrual cycle symptoms of resistance-training women, and also led an intervention of mindfulness-based yoga to see the impact on menstrual cycle symptom severity. These findings are complemented by Lauren’s PhD research, recently completed at Stu Phillips lab at McMaster University, where she looked at muscle protein fractional responses to resistance training in women during different menstrual cycle phases. Covering both the applied and mechanistic side of the equation, this Roundtable discussion led by the Erics gives you the cutting-edge low down on whether or not menstrual cycle phased based training is all that it’s hyped up to be.

We’re back with another trio episode, and in this one, the hosts dig deeper into the Trex-lore. Eric Trexler has been training since his early youth, but only recently has he struggled with his fitness, and health and even had to rethink who he is as a lifter, due to lingering pain. Pain and injury are complex and multifaceted, but the body is resilient and often heals itself with time. But what can you do when nothing seems to work? When you seemingly can’t change your circumstances the only thing left is to change your perspective. Join us in this episode as the hosts share these perspectives, with a collective experience of over 50 years under the bar.