Welcome to our new website!

Episodes

June 9, 2021

Does fit/fat shaming accomplish anything? w/Kelly Lenahan

We all see instances of what many people categorize as “fat shaming” both in conversation and on social media. What’s the real intent of these comments? Is it meant to hurt or help? Do people ever make permanent, positive behavioral changes because...
June 3, 2021

“Super Size Me” – How did this junk food movie fool anyone? | Review and reaction

The 2004 Morgan Spurlock documentary, “Super Size Me” posited that fast food – and a sedentary lifestyle – caused America’s growing obesity epidemic. Spurlock spent 30 days eating food from McDonald’s three meals a day for 30 days, and cut his normal...
May 27, 2021

Mental health awareness month special episode w/Lisa Lampanelli, Nick Scopoletti, and Beau McDowell of the Losers with a Dream podcast

Nick Scopoletti returns to the show -- this time with fellow standup Beau McDowell, and their life coach, retired comic Lisa Lampanelli. Their podcast “Losers with a Dream” features conversations between Nick and Beau about their struggles toward...
May 19, 2021

How much of success is just showing up? | May Q&A

We shifted the schedule around a little in anticipation of some special guests for next week’s show. This week, we address some comments and questions from social media. Is there a particular way that we’re totally wrong for our jobs? What was the...
May 12, 2021

Icarus: Steroid documentary or spy thriller? | Reaction & Review w/Dean Saddoris of Caffeine and Kilos

This month’s media review and react episode is centered on the documentary “Icarus.” Dean Saddoris joins us to discuss this Oscar-winning 2017 documentary. This episode definitely contains spoilers. Filmmaker and cyclist Bryan Fogel made himself a...
May 6, 2021

Is this the golden age of MMA? w/Urijah Faber

A special edition episode. UFC Hall of Famer, and fellow Sacramento gym owner, Urijah Faber joins us. We talk about how sports fit into the hierarchy of human needs, the growth of combat sports in the past several years…and the power of excuses. He...
April 28, 2021

Sponsorships: Are they worth it for smaller brands? Are they fair to athletes? | April Q & A

April’s Q and A episode kicks off with an unplanned behind-the-scenes discussion where we explore the question of sponsored athletes/ambassadors. What do brands like ours really expect to get from sponsoring athletes? How much influence do they really...
April 21, 2021

Bart Kwan: Do influencers create culture or just reflect it?

Bart Kwan is a man with a HUGE platform, so his thoughts on creativity, culture, and social media influence are well…influential. In our second episode with Bart, we broke down these issues, as well as some related questions: Is everyone born...
April 14, 2021

Does Power Unlimited hold up? w/Tommy and Tanner of Massenomics

Inside the Massenomics gym in Western Northeast South Dakota, an ever-vigilant DVD player spins a copy of the circa 2007 documentary “Power Unlimited” around the clock. Who better to have on deck for a look back at that film than the owners of that...
April 7, 2021

Do you have what it takes to lift and work at home forever? w/Bart Kwan of Barbell Brigade

(This is the first of two episodes with Bart. The second will appear in a few weeks). The experience of running multiple businesses over zoom calls, and trying to stay in shape while rarely leaving the house, was enough for Bart and his wife Geo to...
April 1, 2021

“The Last Blockbuster” | A preview of the death of retail? w/Dean Saddoris of Caffeine and Kilos

The fifth show of any month could literally be about anything. This time it’s a documentary review with our buddy Dean Saddoris. Think of it as meathead movie nerds looking for lessons for our own lives in popular media. The hot Netflix documentary...
March 25, 2021

What do ya wanna know? | March Q and A

Time for our monthly swing at your questions. Some of the topics: Who are our favorite Lord of the Rings characters? Which powerlifting bars do we have in our gym? Did Eleiko really start out making waffle irons? Is our gym open to the public? Do you...
March 18, 2021

What do you need to know when starting a gym (or any business)?

This started out as a question asked on Mike’s Instagram: What did we learn in starting a gym? It quickly evolved into a larger discussion of the challenges associated with starting any business. We cover some of our previous experiences (this is not...
March 11, 2021

Did “Pumping Iron” create the fitness industry? | Reaction & Review w/Dean Saddoris of Caffeine and Kilos

In 1977, moviegoers were presented with images of sweaty, oily, and extremely muscular men wearing as little clothing as possible. Many cultural observers believed this was the dawn of what is now a multi-billion-dollar industry as members of the...
March 3, 2021

What do regular gym guys think of powerlifting? w/Fat Dan & his brothers from the Bridge to Bridge Podcast

We brought in two of our buddy Dan Stornaiuolo’s hilarious and engaging brothers, Dom and Mike, to give an outsider’s perspective on powerlifting accomplishments – particularly their “little” brother’s lifting. Don and Mike host the Bridge to Bridge...
Feb. 24, 2021

How do parents (or any busy people) fit fitness into family life? | Monthly Q&A

We’re setting a new pattern of episodes for the next few months. The final episode of each month will be a Q & A about…whatever you (our audience) want to talk about: previous episodes during the month, business, life, training, health, or whatever....
Feb. 18, 2021

What would a perfect powerlifting federation look like? w/Marcus “Filipino Thunder” Sannadan

Our long-time friend and teammate Marcus Sanadan joins us. We review some old lifting footage from not long after we all met and from his recent meet. Then we take Jonnie Candito’s recent video announcing his break with the USAPL as a jumping-off...
Feb. 11, 2021

“Fake Famous” | What did Instagram do for (and to) fitness?

The HBO documentary “Fake Famous” examines some of the ways that Instagram can be manipulated to create “influencers” with large followings (50-60% of which might just be bots) that advertisers are willing to pay to reach. We talk through our...
Feb. 5, 2021

What do new studies say about training for powerlifting vs bodybuilding? (and other discussions) w/ Eric Helms & Omar Isuf

Full transparency, the main question is discussed in the last 15 minutes of the show. In part 1, we talk about what we’ve been up to during our production break for the holidays and plans for some future episodes of the show. NOTE: Next week we’re...
Dec. 23, 2020

Top fitness trends for 2021?

Our second annual take-a-random-trends-list-and-unpack-it episode. Do trends lists offer any real insight or is it all too obvious? Has the current situation made it basically impossible to predict? We also offer some heartfelt thoughts on how to help...
Dec. 12, 2020

Do you have goals or do you have plans?

The end of the year has us all thinking about changes we want to make: Are there a right way and a wrong way to make New Year’s resolutions? Are you really serious about your goals if you need to wait for a specific time to start working toward...
Dec. 5, 2020

How did strongman get so popular? w/Alan Thrall and Joey Szatmary

Strongman is having a moment. More people are watching strongman related content. More people are involved in strongman training now, even if they don’t plan to compete. The bottom line is probably that it’s just fun, but is there more to it? We...
Nov. 20, 2020

Sports have changed due to the pandemic. Which changes will last?

Twenty-twenty has brought some major changes to the ways we do…well, almost everything. A recent article at TheAthletic.com highlighted some of these changes and speculated on which of these changes will likely stay in place even after the pandemic...
Nov. 12, 2020

How is training athletes different than training Gen Pop? w/Joseph and Nolan Grinstain of Hyperthrive Athletics

We invited some successful local trainers/business hours to talk about their approach to training and how they built their business model. Joseph and Nolan Grinstain are two of the three brothers atop Hyperthrive Athletics. Hyperthrive has two...