BarBend Podcast

Alexandra LaChance has been an elite collegiate gymnast, CrossFit Games athlete, and — most recently — a National Champion weightlifter, winning that title in May 2019. Her progression through sports has fantastic lessons for athletes of all types, particularly when it comes to the demands of strength training."I love CrossFit. I still love CrossFit. I still love doing CrossFit for fun," says LaChance. "Training at the level where you're trying to make the games, your training with other games athletes, training together as a group, I think is the most fun thing I've ever done."In this podcast, Alexandra opens up about the highs and lows of success, especially in CrossFit during a time when that sport was absolutely exploding in popularity. How did her gymnastics background help and hurt her? Why did she make the switch to weightlifting full time, and what are her ultimate goals in that sport?We also talk about overtraining, working through and around injury, and what Alex wishes she'd known about nutrition all along.

Danny Camargo leads one of the largest and most successful weightlifting programs in the United States. Himself a former international-level lifter, Danny's Team Oly Concepts is a major force for the sport here and abroad. He's also gained an increased level of recognition for coaching Mattie Rogers, a World Championships medalist and one of America's most successful elite weightlifters this millennium.But after nearly three decades in the sport of weightlifting, Danny Camargo isn't done leaving his mark. And his position today resulted from a major life decision that, had it gone a different way, could have put Danny's livelihood in jeopardy.In this episode of The BarBend Podcast, Danny and host David Thomas Tao dive deep on the sport's growth, the myth of instant gratification, and what Danny thinks most are getting wrong about athlete-driven training. (Hint: The phrase itself can trigger debate in many weightlifting circles.) We also touch on the pros and cons of remote/satellite coaching and Danny's hopes and trepidations for the future of the sport.

How do you self-identify? What happens when life takes a U-turn and you undergo a fundamental shift in how you operate as a person, athlete, or coach? And how the people around you perceive that shift? Changing your mindset is often the hardest part, but Liz Adams has tackled that issue head on — twice. CrossFit competitor and coach Liz Adams joins us to discuss how mindfulness and mental strength impact our development as people and athletes.Liz shares her story of evolving from one type of athlete to another. She leans on mental strength and mindfulness practice to better understand her own growth as a person. Shifting perspectives and roles in your community is never easy, but Liz provides some great tips on how you can turn a personal shift into a net positive for the people around you.Our conversation focused on self-assessment and being honest with yourself in more ways than one. Whether you're an athlete, a coach, or simply experiencing a shift in life, Liz's experience and insights are helpful in working through major change. 

Jake Boly is a writer, powerlifter, and online personality who has written (literally) thousands of articles covering the world of strength sports. He's also BarBend's Fitness Editor and a huge part of our social media team. Over the past three years, Jake has had a ringside seat to one of the biggest issues plaguing the strength community: social media trolls. In this episode of The BarBend Podcast, Jake gives his honest take on the impact trolling has on the strength community, and why so much of that hate is directed at a couple of sports and strength disciplines in particular. We examine the origins of online criticism and how it's shaping today's discourse on strength training, especially the development of new techniques and strategies when it comes to getting stronger. "Every time you post a CrossFit video or a post or an article, whether it be positive, negative, and so forth, there's always at least one troll comment, no matter what," says Jake. "Without fail, there's always one comment."Jake and David also talk about some of the strength athletes they admire most, along with why it's more common to see athletes jump between strength sports in a particular pattern.

Back when CrossFit® was a still budding grassroots community — and when the CrossFit Games took place on a dusty country ranch — Pat Barber made a name for himself as one of its early stars. He taught courses, created some of CrossFit HQ's earliest videos, and competed at the sport's highest levels in a time well before giant endorsement deals. (And live streaming? Forget about it.) Originally from California, Pat was one of the first big name CrossFit personalities to go international, where he played a massive role in growing the methodology and sport in New Zealand and Australia.These days, the 6-time CrossFit Games athlete and Level 4 CrossFit Trainer is still heavily active in the CrossFit community. (By his own estimate, Pat has put roughly 15,000 people through their CrossFit L1 certifications.) In addition to coaching seminars, Pat and his wife Taz run Warmup & Workout, a programming and coaching development platform for gyms around the globe.Pat's in a unique position to give thoughts on the past, present, and future of CrossFit both as a training methodology and sport. Though our conversation covered Pat's optimism for fitness moving forward, we also touch upon some important snags CrossFit — and other fitness methodologies — will continue to face as communities become enmeshed with their online counterparts.

With a nickname like "The Godfather," Dave Spitz is clearly doing something right. The founder and mastermind behind much of California Strength's growth, he's a massive figure in American weightlifting. His team (not to mention his direct coaching) has produced some of the top U.S. lifters in the last decade and helped popularize the sport with an early and huge online following. If you've ever searched the web for lifting motivation and stumbled across videos of Donny Shankle, Jon North, Spencer Moorman, or other Cal Strength athletes, chances are you have Dave to thank.But Dave Spitz is just getting started. In this episode of The BarBend Podcast, we dive deep on a number of topics, including:Cal Strength's growthBeing early YouTube strength pioneersDave's experience coaching NFL stars and prepping college players for the combineDoes the U.S. "lose" top weightlifters to other sports?The Bulgarian SystemWhy Wes Kitts is a once-in-a-decade (or rarer) athlete for Cal Strength

Powerlifter. Coach. Vlogger. Movie star? Bryce Krawczyk's journey in strength started with his desire to bulk up, and it's led him down a pretty incredible path. In this episode, Bryce Krawczyk shares his evolution from complete beginner to world record holding powerlifter and documentary subject in a groundbreaking film. Now a renowned coach and the face behind Calgary Barbell, Bryce is one of Canada's top lifters and ambassadors in strength. It's a journey he hopes will eventually take him to the World Games, a competition Bryce calls the "pinnacle" of powerlifting for athletes around the globe.Bryce and host David Tao also dive deep on misconceptions around the sport of powerlifting — especially when it comes to raw vs. equipped lifting — and why Canadian powerlifters have some of the best nicknames in the sport.

Tom Sroka has done it all — literally. A former standout thrower in track & field, Tom has competed in weightlifting, powerlifting, GRID, and Highland Games competition. He's excelled in each to an impressive degree, making him one of the world's most well-rounded strength athletes, period.Tom's also built a reputation for coaching all levels of strength athletics, particularly when it comes to weightlifting. You can find him at countless national competitions as he trains and develops athletes, often from the ground up.Recently, Tom has developed a passion for — and elite-level skills in — the rising sport of Mas Wrestling, where athletes face opponents one-on-one in something that resembles a cross between deadlifting and tug-of-war. Tom's rise in the sport took him to the World Championships, where he got firsthand experience with the sport's Siberian roots and old school training techniques.

Athletes dedicate their lives to achieving their full potential, or as close to it as possible. So why do so many of us — strength athletes especially — take shortcuts when it comes to recovery? That's the question Will Ahmed, CEO and Founder of WHOOP, set out to address when he was still an undergraduate. WHOOP makes hardware and software to track recovery, performance, and sleep for athletes from the everyday to elite.WHOOP built its brand working with pro athletes in leagues like the NBA and NFL (Kevin Durant is an investor), and now Will and his team have set out to help strength athletes quantify and better manage their recovery, working with athletes like multi-time CrossFit Games Champion Katrin Davidsdottir.

Strongman is one of the most physically demanding — and visually impressive — strength sports on the planet. And perhaps no one has done more to grow the sport's presence online than Kalle Beck.Kalle is the founder of StartingStrongman.com, a fantastic resource covering training in the sport, as well as event results and coverage. And what started as a personal blog — born out of a frustration over the lack of strongman resources online — has evolved into one of strength's more dedicated communities.No one — and I mean no one — has followed the sport more closely over the past decade.But Kalle's goal isn't just to provide online resources for aspiring strongman athletes. He wants to prove that everyone has the potential to participate, not just the 400 pound behemoths we see once a year on television.Find out what drives one of strongman's most visible personalities, along with his motivations and hopes for the sport's continued expansion into the mainstream.StartingStrongman.comBarBend.com