Evidence Strong | Weightlifting Science

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The science of Olympic weightlifting and strength sports. Join expert conversations on the latest research and coaching trends. Each episode delivers actionable, science-driven tips for enhancing power and strength training. Want more? Check out extended episodes at https://www.patreon.com/collection/119238

  1. 6d ago

    Does Resistance Training Shift the Focus From Appearance to Performance? — with Maryam Marashi

    🏋️‍♀️ Extended version of this interview: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong/posts/resistance-and-170041260 🏋️‍♀️ Some studies suggest that strength training helps shift the focus from how our bodies look to how they perform. Dr Maryam Marashi discusses her PhD study on body image across different resistance training modalities, like bodybuilding, CrossFit, Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, and strongwoman. Maryam Marashi, PhD, is a researcher, strength and conditioning coach, and competitive Olympic weightlifter based in Toronto. Her research focuses on resistance training, body image, and the psychological and social factors that shape how people relate to exercise. She spends most of her day coaching everyday exercisers across strength training, weightlifting, CrossFit, and performance settings. Her work sits at the intersection of research and real-world coaching, with a particular interest in helping people build strength without turning fitness into another source of pressure or self-criticism. Enjoy! Original research paper: Marashi M, Sabiston CM, O’Loughlin EK, Ryan SE, Arbour-Nicitopoulos KP, Mack DE. Women’s body image across resistance training modalities: A multidimensional mixed methods study. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. 2026 May 22:103156. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S146902922600097X ❤️ Join Evidence Strong Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong ▶️ Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9L-_m0WGD_7xV0sf87Zy7oMVDdtqR3bG 🖼️ Weightlifting research infographics: https://evidencestrong.com ✉️ Follow Maryam Marashi: 🔹 https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryam-marashi-23562a150 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/maryamymarashi 🔹 https://x.com/maryam_marashi 💪 Follow Evidence Strong: 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/evidence_strong 🔹 https://x.com/EvidenceStrong All the content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, nutritional, coaching, or financial advice, nor does it substitute for advice from your health care professional/provider. Any actions you will take, changes you will make to your nutrition, training or health care, are on your own responsibility and not mine.

    Does Resistance Training Shift the Focus From Appearance to Performance? — with Maryam Marashi

  2. Sep 23

    Heat After Lifting: Better Muscle Growth or Strength? — with Aidan Hopper

    🏋️‍♀️ Extended version of this interview: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong/posts/heat-therapy-or-169042101 🏋️‍♀️ Should you go to the sauna (or hot bath) right after your training session? Will it affect your strength or hypertrophy gains? Aidan Hopper led a meta-analysis of the studies that tested just that. Aidan Hopper, MS, CSCS, is a PhD student in Human Performance and Fitness and an adjunct professor at Lehman College. He earned his master's degree in Exercise and Sport Science from Sacred Heart University, where he competed as a Division I collegiate athlete and developed an interest in the relationship between hypertrophy training and athletic performance. He works in the Applied Muscle Development Lab, focusing on hypertrophy-related research, and also serves as a strength and conditioning coach for a wide range of populations, from youth athletes to recreationally active adults. Enjoy! Original research paper: Hopper A, Coleman M, Pinero A, Mohan AE, Eng J, Wajid Q, Korakakis PA, Wolf M, Swinton PA, Schoenfeld BJ. Feeling the heat: A systematic review with meta-analysis on the effects of post-resistance training thermal therapy on muscular adaptations. https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/866 ❤️ Join Evidence Strong Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong ▶️ Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9L-_m0WGD_7xV0sf87Zy7oMVDdtqR3bG 🖼️ Weightlifting research infographics: https://evidencestrong.com ✉️ Follow Aidan Hopper: 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/hoppa.22/ 🔹 https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-hopper-ms-cscs-756b80274/ 💪 Follow Evidence Strong: 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/evidence_strong 🔹 https://x.com/EvidenceStrong All the content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, nutritional, coaching, or financial advice, nor does it substitute for advice from your health care professional/provider. Any actions you will take, changes you will make to your nutrition, training or health care, are on your own responsibility and not mine.

    Heat After Lifting: Better Muscle Growth or Strength? — with Aidan Hopper

  3. Sep 15

    What Team USA Learned From Testing Elite Weightlifters — with Kristof Kipp

    🏋️‍♀️ Extended version of this interview: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong/posts/biomechanical-of-168727322 🏋️‍♀️ This time, I caught up with Dr. Kristof Kipp on all the new developments in biomechanical testing of Team USA in comparison to the world's elite from other countries. Kristof Kipp, PhD, is a Professor at Marquette University, where he teaches and conducts research in applied sports biomechanics. His work focuses on the mechanics and coordination of strength-power sports, particularly weightlifting and the throwing events. Kristof is a member of the USA Weightlifting high-performance staff and also works with USA Track & Field to collect and translate biomechanical data from elite competition environments. Enjoy! ❤️ Join Evidence Strong Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong ▶️ Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9L-_m0WGD_7xV0sf87Zy7oMVDdtqR3bG 🖼️ Weightlifting research infographics: https://evidencestrong.com ✉️ Follow Kristof Kipp: 🔹 https://x.com/musportscience 🔹 https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristof-kipp-14b42425a/ 🔹 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kristof-Kipp-2 💪 Follow Evidence Strong: 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/evidence_strong 🔹 https://x.com/EvidenceStrong All the content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, nutritional, coaching, or financial advice, nor does it substitute for advice from your health care professional/provider. Any actions you will take, changes you will make to your nutrition, training or health care, are on your own responsibility and not mine.

    What Team USA Learned From Testing Elite Weightlifters — with Kristof Kipp

  4. Sep 9

    Why You Can Keep All Your Muscle but Still Lose Strength on a Cut — with Khash Farzam

    🏋️‍♀️ Extended version of this interview: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong/posts/keeping-muscle-166807530 🏋️‍♀️ Manipulating body weight in sports like weightlifting and powerlifting may influence performance. This is because when losing weight, athletes usually lose some muscle mass, not only fat. But what would happen if all the weight loss came from the fat tissue? Khash Farzam discusses his patient, a powerlifter, who lost only fat, kept all his muscle, but still lost some strength. Dr. Khashayar Farzam is an emergency physician in Kitchener-Waterloo with a broad clinical background in acute care, metabolic health, obesity medicine, and men’s health. He is the founder of True North Metabolic, a physician-led clinic focused on weight management and men’s health with a focus on hormonal health, cardiometabolic risk and hair loss. Outside of medicine, Dr. Farzam is an elite powerlifter who has represented Team Canada and has set multiple Guinness World Records in strength-based categories. His work combines emergency medicine experience with a strong interest in preventive health, performance, and evidence-based metabolic care. Through both his clinical practice and athletic background, he aims to make complex health, hormone, and body composition topics more practical and understandable for patients. Enjoy! Original research paper: Farzam K. Maintenance of Skeletal Muscle Mass Does Not Guarantee Bench Press Performance: A Body-Composition Case Study. Cureus. 2026 May 9;18(5). https://assets.cureus.com/uploads/case_report/pdf/492045/20260509-442747-cuh4vr.pdf ❤️ Join Evidence Strong Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong ▶️ Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9L-_m0WGD_7xV0sf87Zy7oMVDdtqR3bG 🖼️ Weightlifting research infographics: https://evidencestrong.com ✉️ Follow Khash Farzam: 🔹 http://www.truenorthmetabolic.com 🔹 http://www.doctorfarzam.com 🔹 https://www.linkedin.com/in/khashayar-farzam 💪 Follow Evidence Strong: 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/evidence_strong 🔹 https://x.com/EvidenceStrong All the content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, nutritional, coaching, or financial advice, nor does it substitute for advice from your health care professional/provider. Any actions you will take, changes you will make to your nutrition, training or health care, are on your own responsibility and not mine.

    Why You Can Keep All Your Muscle but Still Lose Strength on a Cut — with Khash Farzam

  5. Sep 2

    Retiring from elite weightlifting with Meredith Alwine

    🏋️‍♀️ Extended version of this interview: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong/posts/retiring-from-166804119 🏋️‍♀️ To become a great athlete, a person needs to make their sport a priority. This is the exact reason why retiring from an elite sport may be an extremely hard transition. Meredith Alwine retired two years ago; we sat down for a candid conversation on what helped and what still needs to be dealt with. Meredith Alwine is a former Team USA 71/76kg weightlifter who won the 2021 World Championships, the 2020 World Cup, 3 Pan American Championships, and other titles before retiring in 2024. She now serves as the Elite Athlete Director on the USAW Board of Directors, the Vice Chair of the Athletes' Advisory Council, and the weightlifting representative on the Team USA Athletes' Commission. Outside of weightlifting, Meredith attends SMU Dedman School of Law and lives in Dallas, Texas, with her boyfriend and two dogs. Enjoy! ❤️ Join Evidence Strong Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong ▶️ Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9L-_m0WGD_7xV0sf87Zy7oMVDdtqR3bG 🖼️ Weightlifting research infographics: https://evidencestrong.com ✉️ Follow Meredith Alwine: 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/meredithalwine 🔹 https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-alwine-72210b384 💪 Follow Evidence Strong: 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/evidence_strong 🔹 https://x.com/EvidenceStrong All the content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, nutritional, coaching, or financial advice, nor does it substitute for advice from your health care professional/provider. Any actions you will take, changes you will make to your nutrition, training or health care, are on your own responsibility and not mine.

    Retiring from elite weightlifting with Meredith Alwine

  6. Aug 26

    Why Coming Home Can Be the Hardest Part of the Olympics — with Dr Karen Howells

    🏋️‍♀️ Extended version of this interview: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong/posts/post-competition-166449364 🏋️‍♀️ After representing their country on the biggest stages of the world, athletes face the hard comeback to a normal life, called post-Olympics blues. It is a known but hardly researched phenomenon. Dr Karen Howells is working to change this situation, with the ultimate goal of developing interventions to help athletes recover successfully. Dr Karen Howells is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales, UK. She is a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society (BPS), a registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and regularly provides sport and performance psychology support to athletes from a wide range of individual and team sports competing at a variety of levels. Her research interests are in elite sport and mental health, specifically looking at adversity and growth, and the post-Olympic Blues. She has published her research in a number of academic journals and co-edited a book on Adversity and Growth in Sport. Enjoy! Original research paper: Holly Bradshaw, Karen Howells & Mathijs Lucassen (2022) Abandoned to manage the post-Olympic blues: Olympians reflect on their experiences and the need for a change, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 14:5, 706-723, DOI:10.1080/2159676X.2021.1993974 https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2021.1993974 ❤️ Join Evidence Strong Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong ▶️ Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9L-_m0WGD_7xV0sf87Zy7oMVDdtqR3bG 🖼️ Weightlifting research infographics: https://evidencestrong.com ✉️ Follow Dr Karen Howells: 🔹 https://x.com/mind4sportpsych 🔹 https://x.com/CMetSportPsych 🔹 https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GvbyC0QAAAAJ 🔹 https://www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/schoolofsport/staff/Pages/Dr-Karen-Howells.aspx 💪 Follow Evidence Strong: 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/evidence_strong 🔹 https://x.com/EvidenceStrong All the content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, nutritional, coaching, or financial advice, nor does it substitute for advice from your health care professional/provider. Any actions you will take, changes you will make to your nutrition, training or health care, are on your own responsibility and not mine.

    Why Coming Home Can Be the Hardest Part of the Olympics — with Dr Karen Howells

  7. Aug 18

    Which Isometric Pull Best Predicts Weightlifting Performance? — with Wesley Gawel

    🏋️‍♀️ Extended version of this interview: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong/posts/which-isometric-164760069 🏋️‍♀️ Power position isometric testing has been around for some time now, allowing for effective monitoring and programming for athletes in varius sports, not only Olympic weightlifting. Recently however, two additional positions started to be tested to give more insight into force production capabilities. Dr Wesley Gawel came on the Evidence Strong Show to discuss his study testing forces and rate of force development in three positions in Olympic weightlifters. Wesley Gawel, PhD, CSCS, is a sport scientist and strength and conditioning coach who works at Driveline Baseball, handling biomechanics data collection and processing. He earned his PhD in Sport Physiology and Performance at East Tennessee State University, where he focused on training theory and application. He's also a USA Weightlifting Level 1 coach and has worked with lifters ranging from youth to senior national level. Enjoy! Original research paper: Gawel W, Bauer M, You CH, Rochua K, Gahreman D, Hornsby G, Mizuguchi S, Stone M. A Preliminary Investigation of the Relationship of Three Key Bar Positions on Weightlifting Performance. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning. 2026 Jun 6;6(1). https://journal.iusca.org/index.php/Journal/article/view/508 ❤️ Join Evidence Strong Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong ▶️ Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9L-_m0WGD_7xV0sf87Zy7oMVDdtqR3bG 🖼️ Weightlifting research infographics: https://evidencestrong.com ✉️ Follow Wesley Gawel: 🔹 https://x.com/GawelWes 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/growl_23 🔹 https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesley-gawel-2b8737101 💪 Follow Evidence Strong: 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/evidence_strong 🔹 https://x.com/EvidenceStrong

    Which Isometric Pull Best Predicts Weightlifting Performance? — with Wesley Gawel

  8. Aug 11

    The Valsalva Maneuver: Blood Pressure, Blackouts and Heavy Lifting — with Blake Perry

    🏋️‍♀️ Extended version of this interview: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong/posts/valsalva-blood-164415042 🏋️‍♀️ The fact is that we have very little research about the Valsalva maneuver and resistance training, cardiac health, or health in general. But our understanding of the maneuver is growing. Dr. Blake Perry discussed the nuances of what happens during the Valsalva maneuver and how it relates to cardiac risks, the possibility of developing weightlifter's blackout, and its influence on overall health. Blake Perry is an integrative human physiologist at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand. His research is focused on blood flow to the brain, particularly during large changes in blood pressure induced by resistance exercise and the Valsalva maneuver (modified breath-hold). These research interests stem from a personal interest in both powerlifting and cardiovascular physiology. Blake’s current research is exploring the effects of resistance exercise on arterial stiffness, and the potentially confounding role of the Valsalva maneuver. Enjoy! Original research paper: Perry BG, Perry MJ, Dixon R, Bush M, Ryan-Stewart H. Resistance exercise with combined Valsalva maneuver acutely increases carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity in healthy untrained individuals. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2026 May 29:1-3. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-026-06167-z ❤️ Join Evidence Strong Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evidencestrong ▶️ Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9L-_m0WGD_7xV0sf87Zy7oMVDdtqR3bG 🖼️ Weightlifting research infographics: https://evidencestrong.com ✉️ Follow Blake Perry: 🔹 https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-perry-56293880/ 🔹 https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=41oz8NkAAAAJ 🔹 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Blake-Perry 💪 Follow Evidence Strong: 🔹 https://www.instagram.com/evidence_strong 🔹 https://x.com/EvidenceStrong All the content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, nutritional, coaching, or financial advice, nor does it substitute for advice from your health care professional/provider. Any actions you will take, changes you will make to your nutrition, training or health care, are on your own responsibility and not mine.

    The Valsalva Maneuver: Blood Pressure, Blackouts and Heavy Lifting — with Blake Perry
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The science of Olympic weightlifting and strength sports. Join expert conversations on the latest research and coaching trends. Each episode delivers actionable, science-driven tips for enhancing power and strength training. Want more? Check out extended episodes at https://www.patreon.com/collection/119238

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