The Progress Theory The Progress Theory

Hello, and welcome to the Progress Theory, where we discuss scientific principles for optimising human performance. I am Dr Phil Price. In this episode, we are joined by Ultra Runner and CEO of Beyond the Ultimate, Kris King.
Now, ultra marathons are gaining in popularity. More and more people are looking to push their running performance further than they've ever done before. However, have you ever considered doing an ultra marathon in some of the harshest environments in the world? Well, that's exactly what Beyond the Ultimate offer. Providing ultra marathons in places like the jungle, the desert, and the mountains. And Kris King created these races
So in this episode, Chris and I discuss exactly what you need to do to prepare for some of the harshest races in the world.
In this episode, we discuss:
1:30  - Kris King and Beyond the Ultimate5:39 - Different ultra environments13:15 - Ultramarathon personality17:39 - Kris’ race and challenge history24:26- Training specificity28:07 - The mindset and physical qualities of successful Ultramarathon runners34:20 - How to prepare for an extreme ultra40:30 - Kris’ next challenge43:50 - racing strategies49:46 - Tips for those wanting to do Beyond the Ultimate
Key topics
Ultrarunning and Mental Health: "I think it's partly to do with that, and I don't think it's any, coincidence, or probably, you know, a topic to go too deep too soon, but you know, when you look at the mental health crisis, I don't think that is a coincidence that you have more people on things like antidepressants, more people in therapy than ever before, and there's a rise in a sport that often has a link to people with trauma."
Endurance Racing and Professional Success: "we get a lot of successful business people do our races because I think it gives them that same kind of founder, you know, that exciting bit of research, that exciting thing to kind of obsess over and stuff like that."
Advancements in Athletic Science: "So I was bringing science into my training, learning all about that, and and and trying to get those extra percentiles out of my performance."
Ultramarathon Resilience: "No matter how prepared you are to run a 100 mile is so Adam Kimball, a good mate of mine, is probably one of the best 100 mile races in the world. Like, he loves that distance, and he'll cruise for 60, 70 miles, and then at this kind of, like, final 30, which is mad to say out loud, isn't it? But this is a guy that can 6 minute mile comfortably for 70 miles, and then the race is on. And he has races, of course, where he feels shit, like, shitty at 30 and 40 and stuff, and it's just how it goes. But he is one of those guys that can kind of get into a pain cave and just he has such a positive attitude that he can kind of bring himself through it."
Mastering Ultrarunning – Energy and Mindset: "ultrarunning essentially is an energy and is a balancing of energy in the mind."
Athlete Training Philosophy: "You would just look at getting the basics right, getting the consistency in, getting all of the things that any athlete needs, good nutrition, good sleep, good support network."
Ultrarunning Training Insights: "Even if it's just a one session a week or a quick session, couple of sprints, just to get kind of prep the body for that. You know, one thing that I think all ultrarunners should be is adaptable."
Training Intensity for Athletes: "You're there to create an adaptation and and to go hard. So you know you know you've got it right when you turn up to the gym that day and you're kind of dreading it."
The Importance of Consistency in Athletic Training: "I think if I'd been consistent through the years of my training, I'd not had this...

Hello and welcome to the Progress Theory, where we discuss scientific principles for optimising human performance. In this episode, we are joined again by the legendary Dr. Pak. Now, it was so good to have Dr. Pak back on the show. His last episode was amazing, but this time I wanted to move away from the minimal dose effect research that he's done before and focus more on this new research, which is more around strength and hypertrophy and how we can utilise this information to become as strong as possible and apply this to the deadlift. 
In this episode, we discuss:
0:43 - Introduction 1:50 - What is Kyriakos Grizzly like?8:33 - Minimalist training10:50 - Common traits in super strong athletes12:51 - Expectations on strength gains15:21 - Strength and muscle mass periodisation22:33 - Hypertrophy for deadlift29:42 - Deadlift focused training34:45 - Social media memes and training39:20 - ‘Being Evidence-based’ need to do better51:14 - Dr Pak’s current research and media projects55:50 - Deadlift recommendations
Viral Topic: The Illusion of Strength Standards on Social Media Quote: "A 200 kilo deadlift if you're a lifter is not something that many will regard as impressive. But if you start thinking about your strength in percentiles compared to the average gym gore, if you're not a power lifter, right, then that's a different game."
Hypertrophy Training and One RM Specific Work: "So let's say you are far away from a competition, or you have a year where you can work on hypertrophy. I would personally still have some one RM specific work there."
The Importance of Hypertrophy for Strength Athletes: "And for strength athletes specifically, I do feel that a lot are guilty of massively mistreating hypertrophy specific work and viewing hypertrophy stuff as obviously there are accessories, but I do feel like calling them accessories sometimes leads to them being treated as like, if it's higher reps and it's a machine based exercise, or it's not like an SPD exercise for power lifters, then, okay, I've done my hypertrophy work regardless of whether it was close to failure, whether it's progressing over time, and so on and so forth."
Predicting Deadlift Progress: "But your starting point may be completely different to that of another person, if that makes sense."
The impact of body weight gain on strength training: "But when working with somebody and they want to increase their strength, which is almost everyone I work with and nobody has come to me and said, hey, man, too strong over here, I got to get weaker."
Powerlifting Progression: "Yes, I want 300, but I am at a place in my lifting career where the deadlift now needs either a lot of focus from me and a lot of dedication, which I have other things going on in my life if I want to get close to that 300."
Fitness Myth: "And the more calories would be mostly, it may be placebo to a certain extent, but like, gaining a couple of kilos over a few months means that I am in a calorie surplus, that I am giving myself a bit more, that I am improving my recovery a bit more."
Viral Topic: Social Media and Personal Branding Quote: "I am somebody who's not very serious as an individual, I'm serious about the things I do, but as a character, I like to have fun with things and I like to have fun with more, let's say complex or serious topics like scientific studies and stuff."
The Importance of Evidence-Based Practice: "But I do think that the clash between the two sides, which are not really sides, is just a result of people wanting to naturally go against something and have this enemy."
"Improving Deadlift Strength with Variations and Singles": "Doing one RM specific work in the form of singles, keeping the majority of those with a few reps in reserve, but still having some heavier...

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory, where we discuss scientific principles for optimising human performance.
I am Dr. Phil Price. And on today's episode, we are joined by Powerlifter and S&C coach, Rob Palmer. Now, I've known Rob for many, many years and I know he knows a thing or two about getting as strong as possible. He's won many national titles and international titles in Powerlifting and was an S C coach in professional rugby for over 15 years. So I wanted to know a bit more around his processes on getting as strong as possible and see if we can use that to improve our bench press.
In this episode, we discuss:
0:47 - Introduction7:20 - The importance of a strength culture14:19 - Learning from programming for rugby and powerlifting19:00 - Multifactorial approach to programming22:46 - Common mistakes in strength training25:35 - Variability in strength training & Programming32:27 - Identifying limiters of bench press performance34:01 - Rob’s bench press training37:00 - Reflecting on Rob’s powerlifting career50:07 - Common mistakes in powerlifting skill55:35 - What is 969 strength?
Key Findings
The Challenges of Professional Sport: "The job in professional sport, you're challenged to make lots and lots and lots of decisions every single day that realistically could have a very negative outcome for the player."
"The Value of Strength Training": I still think people don't value strength training as much as they should, because things come in and out of vogue, don't they? So when I first came to the sport, strength training was massive in terms of the thought process of what strength training can do for you. And I'm talking about basic strength training, getting good at deadlifting, getting good at squatting, getting good at being able to bench press, overhead press as much weight as possible, you had this kind of culture.
Viral Topic: The Importance of Recovery in Rugby
Quote: "In rugby, it's all about the recovery. It's got nothing to do with because the guys who are obviously aerobically really well developed, they're not particularly strong, but they can come in and hit 80% plus, 90% plus. It doesn't seem to affect them the same way that it does the guys who are less fit now, if you take them out of that context, say they get injured and they come out. The guys who are less aerobically developed as soon as they start the weight training. And obviously this is a bit of what you're born with, isn't it?"
The Future of Sports Science: "My biggest learnings from rugby are more that kind of truly holistic kind of programming where you have to consider you have an appreciation and consider all the facets of what make an athlete good."
"Improving Strength in Training": "Are you applying a stimulus? And is that stimulus great enough to elicit some sort of adaptation as you come back up?"
Injury Prevention in Sports Training: "So you do lots of volume and you work on lots of different muscle groups in isolation down here, so you can deal with the amount of stress is greater, although it's not on the higher end of the intensity spectrum."
"The Importance of Variation in Strength Training": With the squat you'd use lots of variations, so you get total leg development and it's the same kind of principle. You get total development of all the muscles required to enhance your, in this case, bench press performance. On that isolated muscle side, you get this kind of every single muscle gets developed to its maximal ability or its maximal potential there in isolation. Then you start to strip away, don't you?
Periodized Training: "Yeah, it would be the longest phase of all the phases. But within that so one of the key things for me within all...

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory, where we discuss scientific principles for optimising human performance. In this episode, we're joined by sports physiologist, Dr Becky Neal. 
Have you ever done an obstacle course race such as Spartan or a Tough Mudder? Now think about doing one of those, but at Everest Base Camp. That's exactly what Dr Becky Neal has done. And not only that, she did it as part of a massive research study. So in this episode, we discussed her experiences in the Himalaya and also how her research is helping us understand how people function in high altitude. 
In this episode, we discuss:
0:46 - Introduction2:07 - The world’s highest OCR12:28 - The freezing temperatures15:47 - Racing and avoiding mountain sickness26:08 - The results from the world’s highest race study30:44 - What could warn us of potential mountain sickness40:02 - future high altitude challenges for research46:41 - Would you climb Mt Everest?
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Hello, and welcome to The Progress Theory, where we discuss scientific principles for optimising human performance.
I am Dr. Phil Price, and on today's episode, we are joined by S&C coach and hybrid athlete Jamie Scott. Jamie came to me a few months ago discussing the possibility of him wanting to do a PhD in the area of hybrid training. So I thought, well, this is a perfect opportunity for you to on the show, and we can discuss all of the types of areas that we can look into. So in this episode, we discuss the misconceptions around the interference effect, what kind of factors we need to be really focused on when it comes to hybrid research, and he discusses his own experiences as a hybrid athlete and gives us three tips for our hybrid training.
In this episode, we discuss:
0.55 - Introduction8:23 - Becoming sub-elite in many sports13:44 - The misinterpretation of the interference effect?27:47 - Where hybrid research needs to go?33:44 -  The importance of progressing slowly42:02 - Jamie’s Training goals46:31 - What’s the hardest hybrid challenge?52:42 - Advice for hybrid training
Key Findings
Sub-Elite Performances and the Management of Time: "When we talk about hybrid approaches and being sub elite, that fascinates me because essentially you have people that are in these kind of mismatched conditions or sub-optimal conditions inherently and they're still performing exceptionally well and being able to kind of spin those plates I think is fascinating. So, yeah, I think that when you have an athlete that is maybe not as appreciated because those performances aren't kind of like world class, you're not going to have someone run like a sub ten second, 100 meters, but let's say someone's able to run like a Sub 11.5 and then it also is able to snatch 130. Then even more divergent than that is be able to run like a Sub free marathon. I think I said it in the post, you probably have one of the very select humans on Earth. And I think that's fascinating to really appreciate that actually from a genetic point of view, but also from the management of time."
The Fascinating Question of Human Potential: "I find that very interesting. That's something that we just probably don't know how high that ceiling is."
The Impact of Basic Physiological Needs on Performance: "When you look at potentially the reasons for fatigue from a peripheral perspective, from a central perspective, I think even the desire to drink might downregulate your force production, for example, because that's your primary need."
The Importance of Physiology in Performance: "And I think Jerome Dempsey spoke about physiological redundancy. So essentially, systems within systems, ultimately, you need to stay alive, and it doesn't really care about your five K time or whatever."
Training and Fatigue Management: "And I think that the idea that people in general probably just have to train a bit more, right? We just have to increase, we have to get people out training, have to get people moving. And I think that there's this idea about maybe overdoing it, pushing it or overtraining and managing fatigue."
Adaptations and Fatigue Management: "We see that the stronger signal of adaptations get sent, and hence why interval training is so powerful, right? Because by enabling rest, we're enabled to spend more time at high intensity, but the cost of that is more fatigue."
The Challenges of Improving Weightlifting and Endurance Sports: "The interesting thing that I probably would say from an anecdotal perspective is that when I have done weightlifting, so I particularly enjoy sort of the snatch stuff, I definitely feel like I have to be very sensible in where I place that session. Because if I have a little bit of fatigue or whatever, I just don't feel like I've got that kind of snap and...

Hello and welcome to The Progress Theory where we discuss how to implement scientific principles to optimise human performance. I am Dr Phil Price and in today's episode, we have ex SAS, and now the founder of the Modern Warrior project, Lindsay Bruce.
I’ve been desperate to know what separates those who make into the SAS compared to the rest of us. You hear on social media the importance of leadership, discipline, a fast learner, for example, all of which are important, but you can be a great disciplined leader and still fail SAS selection. Is it physical or all about having the right mindset. And also, can we learn these skills and apply them outside of the military?
As always, follow and subscribe for all of our content on Instagram and Youtube. So here is, Lindsey Bruce
In this episode, we discuss:
1:00 - Introduction05:09 - How to apply for the SAS09:09 - What do you need to complete SAS selection?13:22 - Are you cut from a different cloth?18:14 - The background of SAS soldiers vs Officers24:05 - Developing mindset through exposure28:37 - Is there anything where you’ve got it or you haven’t?34:35 - The phases of selection40:16 - The Physical determinants of SAS selection49:27 - The Modern Warrior Project1:05:26 - Signing up for the Modern Warrior Project
Key Findings
The Popularity of Special Forces and TV Shows: "Especially when you're linking that from TV to social media, and obviously recent years popularity with The TV shows that is just growing arms and legs, obviously, you know, which is, you know, going back to Before before all this happened, you had the odd thing that would maybe come out that would be, you know, popular in TV. But it didn't really go to that level of And I think social media has obviously helped catapult that into the, you know, another stratosphere really, which is which is got It's got positives and negatives along with that."
The Power of Grit and Determination: "But there is something about every man who gets through that if you just has an extra level of grit, Drive and determination than the next than the next guy."
The Drive to Success: "They've got a huge reason to, you know, that when you see a championship level boxer who comes from nothing and to to get to the top, he is the hungry wolf climbing the hill to get to the top."
The Importance of Health and Fitness in the Military: "There is so much you can do physically, then the rest of it is down to their mindset and how resilient they are, and what goes on upstairs."
The Evolution of Health and Fitness: "So if you look at the that that era and and how that era ended up moving on to later stages of life, a lot of them were like packs of broken biscuits physically later on in life because they don't look after themselves."
Finding Purpose in Life: "I went through this period where I just wasn't quite sure what I should be doing. So there was a lot of uncertainty as far as, you know, the question you ask yourself, am I really doing the right thing? You know, I kinda like what I'm doing. Some of the some of the things that I'm doing, I I enjoy, but really is it really serving me in my life to the point where I think that I'm in the right place, doing the right thing. And and the reality was that I wasn't."
Helping Men Similar to My Age: "So at the same time, I could see certain problems in the world, from a general perspective of men over a certain age. They were having these common challenges in life. And I thought there was a huge there was a huge calling for helping men similar to my age who I could really relate to and help."
Belonging to Something: "And everyone's different. There's a very diverse bunch of people come into the program, but they all have similar common challenges that can be dealt