Weights and Plates Podcast Robert Santana

There's seemingly no end to the "evidence based" coaches out there nowadays making all sorts of claims about you should train, backed up by scientific data. Have you actually read any of the papers they cite to back up their claims? It turns out, there are numerous problems with the field of scientific research, from the actual design of the experiments to the reporting of data, the publishing process and peer review, and, last but not least, skewed incentives for the people carrying out research at every level. Dr. Bradford, who earned a PhD in Pharmacology and Molecular Cancer Biology from Duke University in 2004, walks through the problems with the modern scientific process, and why professional research is the not the same as science.
 
Weights & Plates is now on YouTube!
https://youtube.com/@weights_and_plates?si=ebAS8sRtzsPmFQf-
 
Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com
Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana
 
Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream
Email: jonesbarbellclub@gmail.com
 

To quote Mark Rippetoe, "women are not a special population, they are half the population." In other words, women fundamentally train for strength the same way that men do -- the same principles of progressive overload, using compound barbell lifts that target the whole body, and nutritional principles apply. There are a few exceptions, however, and that's what Dr. Santana and Coach Trent address in today's episode.
 
How Birth Control Can Inhibit Strength and Performance by Lea Genders:
https://www.leagendersfitness.com/news/how-hormonal-birth-control-can-inhibit-strength-and-muscle-development
 
Weights & Plates is now on YouTube!
https://youtube.com/@weights_and_plates?si=ebAS8sRtzsPmFQf-
 
Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com
Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana
 
Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream
Email: jonesbarbellclub@gmail.com
 

Dr. Santana and Coach Trent wrap up their mini series on post-novice programming with an important discussion on understanding why you missed reps. The novice linear progression cannot last forevever (or else we'd all be squatting 1,000lbs!), and as the saying goes, all good things come to an end. This means that at some point, you'll miss reps. What do you do then? Some people have the impression that missing reps means it's time to change the program, and that's not necessarily true. Often there are recovery issues at play that can be addressed, allowing the lifter to extend progress on the novice linear progression with a few simple tweaks. In today's episode, Dr. Santana and Coach Trent walk through the The First Three Questions outlined in the Starting Strength method, and a fourth question, related to the stress/recovery/adaptation model.
 
In the Starting Strength article The First Three Questions, Rip identifies three important questions to ask yourself when progress stalls:
How long are you resting between sets? How big are your jumps in weight between workouts? How much are you eating and sleeping?  
The demands of heavy barbell training are high, and many trainees miss the mark on one or more of these questions, especially a few months into a novice linear progression when every lift has become hard. Coach Trent adds a fourth question to the mix: what other stressors are going on in your life? Psychological stress affects physical perormance, especially when it becomes chronic stress. Especially for busy adults with lots of responsibilities outside the gym, you have to account for life stressors in your recovery and programming.
 
Weights & Plates is now on YouTube!
https://youtube.com/@weights_and_plates?si=ebAS8sRtzsPmFQf-
 
Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com
Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana
 
Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream
Email: jonesbarbellclub@gmail.com
 

Dr. Robert Santana and Coach Trent explore the Stress/Recovery/Adapation cycle (adapted from Hans Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome) and how it serves as a guiding model for programming decisions in the intermediate phase of training.
 
Weights & Plates is now on YouTube!
https://youtube.com/@weights_and_plates?si=ebAS8sRtzsPmFQf-
 
Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com
Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana
 
Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream
Email: jonesbarbellclub@gmail.com
 

The novice linear progression (NLP, or LP for short) is a fun time in the training career of a lifter. Never will you make as much progress -- and as fast! -- as you will during LP. It's also brutally hard, especially toward the end. Nevertheless, it comes to an end for every lifter, and people often spin their wheels trying to figure out what to do once the simple A/B program stops working. In today's episode, Dr. Santana and Coach Trent discuss some basic principles of post-novice programming, and point out that at all stages of the game, the main goal is that the weight must go up.
 
Weights & Plates is now on YouTube!
https://youtube.com/@weights_and_plates?si=ebAS8sRtzsPmFQf-
 
Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com
Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana
 
Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream
Email: jonesbarbellclub@gmail.com
 

For a variety of reasons, the predominant form of exercise in popular culture is endurance training. Endurance is valorized in the media, with sports like swimming and running receiving prime position in Olympic broadcasts. Military films often depict the hero enduring through miles and miles of trackless jungle and urban wastelands. The overarching experience of endurance training is pain, and pain is relatable. Everyone suffers, or will suffer, from pain in their life. It's even in the popular saying: "no pain, no gain."
 
Strength training, however, does not elicit the same pain response that endurance training does. Strength training does not burn or ache, it is an entirely different experience. Squatting a heavy set of five with a barbell feels like being crushed by a Mack truck; you must overcome an intense amount of pressure in your whole body, while pushing as hard as you can against the weight. Your body dumps adrenaline, increasing your heart rate and blood pressure. The set begins long before you step on the platform too. Hours or even days before the event, the anticipation of a heavy, all-out set of squats gives you butterflies. Strength training is, essentially, engaging with and conquering a fear response.
 
For this reason, strength training is a harder sell in the fitness community. It is socially acceptable to pound a trainee into the ground with endurance training. People will pay dearly for it, in fact! Just look at Crossfit, where they frequently claim "your workout is our warmup." Yet, if you want to build a strong, resilient, muscular body, learning to face your fears and lift heavy barbells is a must. It's a useful skill in the gym, and in life.
 
Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com
Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana
 
Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream
Email: jonesbarbellclub@gmail.com