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. 14 h fa

    If Everyone Says Mindset Matters, Why Does Nobody Train It? w/ Dr. Kate Cohen

    In the fifteenth episode of Iron Minds, Samuele sits down with Dr. Kate Cohen, sport psychologist with a PhD in sport psychology from Florida State, two-time USA Powerlifting national champion and USAPL national record holder in the deadlift and the total at 48kg, who now teaches sport psychology at the college level in New Jersey. They talk about why every coach ranks the mental side near the top and almost nobody actually trains it. 0:00 - Intro 2:50 - Fourteen years competing, national records, and a PhD in sport psychology 5:41 - Before and after the PhD: the nervous wreck in the warm-up room 8:06 - The Michael Jordan problem: is a toxic mentality something you fix? 13:44 - Why no one working with him wanted to touch that part of him 15:20 - The talented, anxious teenager — preserve the fire or calm it down? 17:02 - What happens when a PR shrinks to 1.25 kilos 19:55 - Powerlifting vs team sport: one shot, and you have to generate the anger 22:15 - The coach-athlete relationship, and an American-vs-Italian culture gap 25:47 - Winning the athlete vs helping the human: are they the same job? 29:53 - Psychological plateaus, and what flow state actually is 31:29 - Manipulating the environment to make flow more likely 33:19 - Four traits psychologically strong athletes share 35:16 - Failure, plateaus, bad meets: "you missed the point" 39:14 - How much of the mental side is genetic? 43:18 - Advice to parents raising a future athlete 46:26 - Male vs female athletes: what the research actually shows 49:02 - Top-down or bottom-up: how she runs a first session 56:54 - The data: no coach ranked psychology lower than second 58:07 - Not a value problem — a knowledge-implementation gap 59:30 - Treated as an outcome instead of a trainable component 1:02:52 - Why the physical side has the infrastructure and the mental side doesn't 1:07:32 - The stigma: if you seek help, you must be mentally weak 1:11:24 - Stoicism, journaling, and why you can't theory your way to a squat 1:15:58 - When powerlifting coaches try to be the psychologist 1:18:14 - Sport psychology in powerlifting ten years from now Samuele: https://www.instagram.com/giulianodontario/ Kate: https://www.instagram.com/kateco220/ TSG: https://www.instagram.com/thestrengthguys/

  2. 19 ago

    The Best Programming in the World Looks Vanilla w/ Chris Ferratti aka Big Body

    In the fourteenth episode of Iron Minds, Samuele sits down with Chris "Big Body" Ferratti to talk about why he ranks mentality above everything and genetics last, why he has never once used a velocity tracker, and why he thinks the new IPF bench rule has quietly killed leg drive. 0:00 - Intro 0:36 - August on the Flex roster: Sheffield, Houston and run-through meets 2:45 - The Chance Mitchell comeback rumours 4:58 - Taekwondo, football and what other sports taught him 9:38 - Two years without a deadlift PR, and the film database 12:57 - Ranking the six variables that build an athlete 14:00 - Why mentality outranks genetics 20:11 - What separates Sheffield athletes: Gustav Hedlin's routine 24:48 - Technique only has to be good enough to pass 28:46 - "I enjoy boring": Agata Sitko and Alba Boström 32:31 - Programming and technique are both just coaching 37:56 - Why genetics ranks last 41:35 - The most common reason lifters plateau 48:42 - The one variable he'd track: bar speed and RPE 54:24 - "The closer you ride to the sun" 1:03:12 - One squat day a week, two sets, fried 1:11:06 - Intuition vs data tracking, and vanilla programming 1:20:22 - Russ's third bench attempt at Sheffield 1:28:03 - Ugly PRs, and when movement quality is allowed to drop 1:31:06 - Waiving depth on secondary squat days 1:39:56 - Injury risk: lifestyle, and lifting crooked 1:44:04 - Hot take: there's no leg drive under the new bench rule 1:48:13 - Hot take: America has the most potential to sweep Worlds 1:59:18 - The question he wishes someone would ask him 2:03:19 - "It's uncomfortable to be unique": the cost of greatness 2:09:26 - Chris turns the mic around on Samuele Samuele: https://www.instagram.com/giulianodontario/ Chris: https://www.instagram.com/theofficialbigbody/ Flexx Training Systems: https://www.instagram.com/flexxtrainingsystems/ Flex Training Systems: {Flex Training Systems Instagram URL}

  3. 13 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/

  4. 7 ago

    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/

  5. 29 lug

    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/

  6. 22 lug

    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/

  7. 15 lug

    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/

  8. 8 lug

    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/

Elenco completo (15)

Descrizione

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.

Informazioni

  • Creatore
    Sam Bolotta
  • Anni di attività
    2026
  • Puntate
    15
  • Classificazione
    Contenuti espliciti
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Sam Bolotta
  • Sito web del podcast
    Iron Minds
  • Fornitore

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