The Paul Weber Podcast

Paul Weber
  • 5.0 (9)
  • HEALTH & FITNESS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Every Thursday, I will be covering training, nutrition and lifestyle for fitness, hybrid and tactical athletes.

  1. 5D AGO

    141 My 3 Year Bodybuilding Experiment

    Send us a text In this episode, I share my experience training with a conditioning bias, training with a strength bias, why I switched to bodybuilding and where I'm going next in my training. I talk about muscle growth, the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness, gut health, building athletic momentum, and how I apply these lessons learned with my athletes. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and I'll see you in 2026! --- Whenever you're ready, there are 4 ways I can help you: ​Book an Intro Consult​: This is the next step for athletes who want to work with me 1:1. My coaching is for fitness, hybrid and tactical athletes. You can use this link to get on my calendar. You'll complete an intake sheet as well prior to the meeting. If you decide to hire me, the fee will get put toward your first month of coaching.Training deep dives: Join hundreds of coaches and athletes who have upgraded their training for ​strength​, ​gymnastics​, ​conditioning​ and ​competitive fitness​.​Programming Mentor Meeting​: For coaches and athletes who want to get clarity on their training. Know your training priorities, measure meaningful metrics, and make real progress.​Business Mentor Meeting​: For in-person coaches who want to learn how to get online clients.

    1h 2m

  2. DEC 12

    140 The Open, Quarterfinals and AGOQ Movement Analysis

    Send us a text Link to the full movement analysis: https://www.instagram.com/p/DSF-hQpEd2H/?hl=en&img_index=1 Most frequent Open movements (2021-2025): BurpeesDouble UndersThrusters Chest to BarBar Muscle UpsWall WalksDeadliftsMost frequent Individual Quarterfinals movements (2021-2024): RowBurpee Box Jump OversRope ClimbsCleansSnatchesWall BallsKipping HSPUStrict HSPURing Muscle UpsGHD Situps(Honorable mention) Wall-Facing HSPU - the more recent precedentMost frequent AGOQ movements (2021-2024): RowCleansRope ClimbsKipping HSPUToes to BarBurpee Box Jump OversRing Muscle UpsGHD SitupsWall-Facing HSPUWalking LungesPistolsOverhead SquatsShuttle RunsDouble Unders--- Whenever you're ready, there are 4 ways I can help you: ​Book an Intro Consult​: This is the next step for athletes who want to work with me 1:1. My coaching is for fitness, hybrid and tactical athletes.Training deep dives: Join hundreds of coaches and athletes who have upgraded their training for ​strength​, ​gymnastics​, ​conditioning​ and ​competitive fitness​.​Programming Mentor Meeting​: For coaches and athletes who want to get clarity on their training. Know your training priorities, measure meaningful metrics, and make real progress.​Business Mentor Meeting​: For in-person coaches who want to learn how to get online clients.

    31 min

  3. DEC 4

    139 Long Term Conditioning

    Send us a text To excel at a multiday fitness competition, you need to be prepared for an immense workload. Athletes who may perform incredibly on Event 1 are gassed by Event 8. While every athlete must be powerful, having so many events over multiple days gives an advantage to the athletes who recover the fastest. By the final day, it may be less about who can perform the best fresh, and more about who is the least tired. The greater your cardiorespiratory fitness, the faster you recover from all types of exercise. High CRF is associated with improved autonomic nervous system function, which has been linked to humans' ability to control inflammation, preserve immunity, and even recover our ability to produce maximum voluntary force.[1,2,3,4] The fitter you are, the faster you can recover, and the closer you can stay to your peak performance through a multiday fitness comp. The game of fitness can be summarized as: Chronically increase training load. This requires that we: have an idea what our training load isavoid big fluctuationsincrease it incrementally over months and yearsFor athletes who want to join a long term approach to fitness sport, I'm designing the first in a series of programs: Offseason Level 1. Offseason training for beginner and intermediate fitness athletesFoundational strength training, conditioning and skill acquisitionTraining PrioritiesBasic Strength and Functional HypertrophyOlympic Weightlifting SkillGymnastic StrengthEssential MobilityAerobic Endurance and PacingTap here to join the waitlist: ​https://paul-b-weber.kit.com/105c01429d References [1] The Relation between High Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Low Inflammation is Mediated by Autonomic Nervous System Function ​https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.118.suppl_18.S_1158-c?doi=10.1161/circ.118.suppl_18.S_1158-c​ [2] Parasympathetic Nervous Activity Mirrors Recovery Status in Weightlifting Performance After Training https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49791584_Parasympathetic_Nervous_Activity_Mirrors_Recovery_Status_in_Weightlifting_Performance_After_Training​ [3] Recovery of central and peripheral neuromuscular fatigue after exercise ​https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00775.2016​ [4] Effects of Exercise Training on the Autonomic Nervous System with a Focus on Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidants Effects ​https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8868289/

    41 min

  4. NOV 27

    138 Long Term Gymnastics Development

    Send us a text Gymnastics in Fitness Sport When you do gymnastics, you are exercising in what exercise physiologists call the extreme intensity domain, with very few exceptions. The most notable exceptions are the burpee and box jump over, which I train with a conditioning perspective, rather than the approach I'll describe below. For almost every other gymnastics movement, the time to exhaustion is less than two minutes. Exercise that exhausts you this fast is very intense. At these intensities, performance seems to be limited by: Neuromuscular factorsPerception of effortMetabolic fitnessIn light of this, worthy training goals are to: Increase top end neuromuscular ability (get stronger)Move more efficiently (make the movement feel easier)Improve fitnessCommon practice vs. a complete approach to gymnastics development Most athletes work hard on their fitness, and do way less work on getting gymnastically stronger and moving better. In gymnastics-heavy workouts, fitness helps you recover faster when you break, but it isn't the reason you break in the first place. You don't break because of your "breathing" or "heart rate" as much as you break because of neuromuscular factors. Fitness is still important because you want to recover fast when you break. And the fitter you are, the faster you recover. But, if you want to win gymnastics workouts, instead of working solely on how fast you recover when you break, it also makes sense to train to...well, not break. To not break, you need to build gymnastic strength and learn to move more efficiently. Long Term Gymnastics Development In light of these performance limitations, here's how I train my athletes, both in the context of the season and the career: Gymnastic StrengthMovement EfficiencyVolumeDensityIntensityFor athletes who want to join this long term approach, I'm designing the first in a series of programs: Offseason Level 1. Offseason training for beginner and intermediate fitness athletesFoundational strength training, conditioning and skill acquisitionTraining PrioritiesBasic Strength and Functional HypertrophyOlympic Weightlifting SkillGymnastic StrengthEssential MobilityAerobic Endurance and PacingTap here to join the waitlist: https://paul-b-weber.kit.com/105c01429d

    40 min

  5. NOV 20

    137 Long Term Strength Development

    Send us a text Strength adaptations come from morphological effects and neural effects. Morphological effects (mainly muscle growth) are why strength sports have weight classes. Assuming similar training styles, the more muscular athlete usually lifts more. However, neural effects are why world class female lifters are stronger than most men, despite having way less muscle. Neural effects are also why powerlifters aren't good at snatching, and weightlifters aren't good at jiu-jitsu. Neural effects make strength context-specific. Training for Muscle Growth When training for muscle growth, the key ingredient is enough mechanical tension. For most fitness athletes, this means training with: Proximity to failure (0-2 RIR)3-8RMExercise selection specific-enough to primary lifts (supertotal)More sets = more mechanical tension = more muscle growth Training for Neural Effects When training for neural effects, the key ingredients are high muscle activity and force production. For most fitness athletes, this means training with: Maximal intent to potentiate the nervous systemEnough specificity in the program to master the primary liftsLow enough volume-load to keep neural fatigue lowFewer sets = less neural fatigue = higher muscle activity and force production Which should you train for? Effective long term strength development will involve training for both morphological and neural effects.  Most athletes should avoid extremes - going all in on one and neglecting the other. Take an approach that addresses both. Elite fitness athletes are really jacked. For most people, being a fitness athlete is going to mean trying to get as muscular as possible without neglecting the other aspects of your training. Very gifted athletes (top 5% in muscle mass) may be able to just train for neural adaptations and keep their muscle mass without dedicated hypertrophy training. Long Term Strength Development For beginners, I suggest the following approach to long term strength development: Functional HypertrophyBasic StrengthOlympic Weightlifting SkillStrength and PowerBatteryThis approach front loads: extensive trainingattributes with late peak biological ages and long residualshonoring pre-requisitesFor athletes who want to join this long term approach, I'm designing the first in a series of programs: Offseason Level 1. Offseason training for beginner and intermediate fitness athletesFoundational strength training, conditioning and skill acquisitionTraining PrioritiesBasic Strength and Functional HypertrophyOlympic Weightlifting SkillGymnastic StrengthEssential MobilityAerobic Endurance and PacingTap here to join the waitlist: https://paul-b-weber.kit.com/105c01429d Notes Morphological Effects Muscle hypertrophyFast-twitch fiber adaptation - shift to Type IIAIncreased bone densityIncreased tendon strength and stiffnessNeural Effects Increased motor unit recruitmentIncreased firing rate (rate coding)Improved motor unit synchronizationReduced antagonist muscle activationEnhanced intermuscular coordinationDisinhibition of inhibitory mechanisms

    45 min

  6. NOV 6

    136 Long Term Athletic Development for Fitness Competitors

    Send us a text In this episode, I describe a Long Term Athletic Development (LTAD) model for fitness competitors. The model depends on three concepts: Extensive to intensive trainingLong to short residual training effectsPre-requisites to expressionWith these in mind, I created a phased approach to each of the three disciplines in fitness sport. Strength Functional HypertrophyBasic StrengthOlympic Weightlifting SkillStrength and PowerBatteryGymnastics Gymnastic StrengthMovement EfficiencyVolumeDensityIntensityConditioning PacingAerobic EndurancePractice Race-Relevant Paces - Single ModalityPractice Race-Relevant Paces - Mixed ModalitiesAcute Cardiorespiratory DemandIntroducing the program: Offseason Level 1. Tap here to join the waitlist: https://paul-b-weber.kit.com/105c01429d Offseason training for beginner and intermediate fitness athletesFoundational strength training, conditioning and skill acquisitionTraining PrioritiesBasic Strength and Functional HypertrophyOlympic Weightlifting SkillGymnastic StrengthEssential MobilityAerobic Endurance and Pacing

    41 min

  7. OCT 30

    135 Hybrid vs. Mixed Training

    Send us a text In this episode, we discuss the differences, pros and cons of hybrid and mixed training. Hybrid Training Less interference than mixed workoutsBigger adaptations to each training stimulusMore targeted to a specific modalityAdaptable to injury history, equipmentHigher training loadsMixed Training More specific to fitness competitionImproved pacing of mixed workoutsVaried and excitingIncreased motivation via the group effectFrequent intensityContextual Considerations: Beginner vs. AdvancedOffseason vs. In-seasonPhysiological Bias vs. All-Rounder

    28 min

  8. OCT 22

    134 7 Common Conditioning Mistakes

    Send us a text Common Conditioning Mistake: Too frequent high intensity trainingIntensity limiting total training loadOnly practicing race pace at high RPEsAll-out effort in hard sessionsExcessive training varietyStarting workouts too hot"Always ready" approach to trainingBest Practice: High-low modelLarge training loads with more low intensity trainingPractice race pace at submaximal RPEs often to lower perception of effortControlled effort in hard sessions, save all-out efforts for raceWeek to week controlIncremental effortPeak for race dayJoin us for the live training "Conditioning for Fitness Athletes" This Thursday, October 23rd, 3pm MT If you sign up today, you'll get permanent access to the recording. Tap to save your spot: https://www.paulbweber.com/conditioning-for-fitness-athletes

    37 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Every Thursday, I will be covering training, nutrition and lifestyle for fitness, hybrid and tactical athletes.

Information

  • Creator
    Paul Weber
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    141
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 The Paul Weber Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Paul Weber Podcast

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