Iron Culture

In this crossover episode of Iron Culture, co-hosts Danny Lennon and Eric Trexler are joined by fitness professional and fellow Sports Nutrition Association (SNA) advisory board member Laurin Conlin. Together, they dive into the complex relationship between mental health, physique sports, and fitness coaching. Laurin shares her personal experiences and insights on how disordered eating and body image issues often arise in competitive physique sports, and how these behaviors can permeate into the broader fitness space. The conversation highlights strategies for recognizing and reducing harmful behaviors, the importance of revisiting problematic terminology in the industry, and the value of maintaining a holistic perspective in coaching. Practical advice for fitness practitioners is grounded in evidence-based approaches like motivational interviewing, helping coaches better support clients navigating these challenges. The episode concludes with resources for learning more about the SNA and its initiatives in advancing sports nutrition practice. Time stamps: 00:00 Introducing Laurin to this SNA crossover episode 06:05 What got Laurin into the mental health space and where does physique sport cross into disordered eating/body image disorder? 15:02 Recognising and reducing harmful behaviours and cognitions associated with competing in physique sport  28:20 Laurin’s personal experiences and physique sport behaviours permeating into general health and fitness  35:51 Problematic terminology and looking at the bigger picture 45:51 Advice for health practitioners to help clients in this area Clifford & Curtis (2016) Motivational interviewing in nutrition and fitness. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-33705-000 58:22 Closing out and where to find more information on the Sport Nutrition Association Website https://sportsnutritionassociation.com/ Board Members https://sportsnutritionassociation.com/advisory-board/

Who is the strongest? Is it the person with the biggest Powerlifting total? Weightlifting total? The current Worlds Strongest Man/Woman Champion? Or, perhaps, the current Arnold Strongman Classic Champion? It’s an oft-debated question, typically occurring around the proverbial fitness water cooler. However, recently Dr. Kind, Dr. Veit, Dr. Heffernan, and our very own Dr. Helms made this debate into a multidisciplinary academic paper. Specifically, they asked the question through the lens of history, what has strength meant in society since the dawn of physical culture, what is strength philosophically, and finally, what is strength objectively, as measured in sport and exercise science? Join us as we discuss why asking this question is important, and how these very different disciplines turned out to be quite complementary in providing an answer.   The MASS crew records Iron Culture LIVE on YouTube, every Monday night at 7pm eastern time. Be sure to join us for a future episode and say hello in the live chat!   If you'd like to submit a question or topic for us to address on an upcoming episode, please use this link:   https://massresearchreview.com/office-hours/   Time stamps: 00:00 Welcoming back Dr Conor Heffernan from the Obelisk 2:35 Adrian and Walter (re)-introduction Kind 2023 Is bodybuilding a sport? https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00948705.2023.2234978 6:26 What is strength? Kind 2024 What is strength? https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/467 14:21 Who in society decides what strength is? 29:45 A philosophical breakdown of the definition of strength 36:54 Strength measures of interest 56:02 Skill, efficiency, and intentionality Bauman 1926 Observations on the Strength of the Chimpanzee and its Implications https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article-abstract/7/1/1/866743 1:06:03 Eric’s tirade on sports science and exploring different strength variables 1:12:36 Categorising strength feats 1:18:46 The final sign-off (more plates, more dates?)

In this episode of Iron Culture, hosts Eric Trexler and Eric Helms begin with a brief discussion of Trex's recent MASS article on the misapplication of modern pain science in the fitness industry. They then discuss the nuances of protein recommendations, debating the merits of using body weight versus fat-free mass as a basis for determining protein needs. The conversation also touches on current research trends in protein intake and hypertrophy. Trexler and Helms move on to discuss the effects of electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) on hypertrophy, the impact of aging on hypertrophy and training volume benchmarks, lengthened partials as a training technique, adaptation to cold training environments, the impact of biomechanics on injury, the psychological aspects of motivation in training, and more.   The MASS crew records Iron Culture LIVE on YouTube, every Monday night at 7pm eastern time. Be sure to join us for a future episode and say hello in the live chat!   If you'd like to submit a question or topic for us to address on an upcoming episode, please use this link:   https://massresearchreview.com/office-hours/   Time stamps: 00:00 Introduction: the MASS Black Friday Sale and Journal Club https://massresearchreview.com/ 7:47  Discussion on Pain Science and Misapplication in Fitness 15:25 Protein Recommendations: Body Weight vs. Fat-Free Mass Helms 2014 A systematic review of dietary protein during caloric restriction in resistance trained lean athletes: a case for higher intakes https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24092... 23:57  Current Research in Protein Intake and Hypertrophy Tagawa 2020 Dose-response relationship between protein intake and muscle mass increase: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33300... Morton 2018 A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28698... 26:26 Protein Recommendations and Controversies Nunes 2022 Systematic review and meta-analysis of protein intake to support muscle mass and function in healthy adults https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35187... 35:02 EMS for Hypertrophy 42:50 Age and Hypertrophy: Adjusting Volume for Older Lifters Pelland 2024 The Resistance Training Dose-Response: Meta-Regressions Exploring the Effects of Weekly Volume and Frequency on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gain https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/serve... 50:16 Trexler’s Lengthened Partials Experience 54:57 Adapting to Training in the Cold 1:00:07 Asymmetries, Biomechanics, and Injury 1:08:08 Protein Requirements: Why is Everyone So Confident about 1.6g/kg/day? 1:11:39 Motivation in a Demotivating Environment and Goalsetting 1:27:51 Final Points on Motivation  1:31:48 Closing Out   --- Turn your videos into live streams with https://restream.io   --- Music credit: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-... Artist: http://incompetech.com/

This week we’ve got a MONSTER episode in the form of a live Q&A episode with Dr. Helms and Dr. Trexler. The Good Doctors begin with a recap of the recent WNBF World Championships, followed by an insightful discussion about whether or not humans have a “factory error” in our design that promotes obesity. This is followed by a number of listeners’ questions about functional anatomy, exercise selection, the importance of the eccentric phase of a lift, factors impacting reps in reserve (RIR) accuracy, biceps contributions to back exercises, hypertrophy considerations for the deadlift exercise, mini-cuts, set-to-set fatigue, energy expenditure limits, “delayed” hypertrophy, how to tell if you’re a creatine nonresponder, and velocity-based training.   The MASS crew records Iron Culture LIVE on YouTube, every Monday night at 7pm eastern time. Be sure to join us for a future episode and say hello in the live chat!   If you'd like to submit a question or topic for us to address on an upcoming episode, please use this link:   https://massresearchreview.com/office-hours/     Also, don’t miss out on the MASS Black Friday Sale, which has already started! Learn more and take advantage of huge discounts at www.massresearchreview.com   Time stamps: 0:00 Intro 5:30 WNBF Worlds recap 15:25 Do Humans Have a “Factory Error” in our Design That Promotes Obesity? Pontzer 2023 The provisioned primate: patterns of obesity across lemurs, monkeys, apes and humans https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37661747/ 25:45 How important is the eccentric portion of the lift for hypertrophy? Roig 2009 The effects of eccentric versus concentric resistance training on muscle strength and mass in healthy adults: a systematic review with meta-analysis https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18981046/ Schoenfeld 2010 The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20847704/ 37:15 Exercises with brace points Haugen 2023 Effect of free-weight vs. machine-based strength training on maximal strength, hypertrophy and jump performance - a systematic review and meta-analysis https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37582807/ 44:56 Biceps functional anatomy during back compound exercises and epistemology Pelland 2024 The Resistance Training Dose-Response: Meta-Regressions Exploring the Effects of Weekly Volume and Frequency on Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gain https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/460/version/587 50:25 Muscles to hypertrophy to increase deadlift strength 57:55 Rapid fire questions – Q1 Mini-cuts and bulking 1:05:15 Q2 Bench repetition performance across sets 1:08:35 Q3 Extreme energy expenditure Areta 2024 Energetics of a World-Tour Female Road Cyclist During a Multistage Race (Tour de France Femmes) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38796175/ Thurber 2019 Extreme events reveal an alimentary limit on sustained maximal human energy expenditure https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31183404/ 1:12:34 Q4 Latent or delayed hypertrophy following a diet Bjørnsen 2019 Delayed myonuclear addition, myofiber hypertrophy, and increases in strength with high-frequency low-load blood flow restricted training to volitional failure https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30543499/ Damas 2016 Resistance training-induced changes in integrated myofibrillar protein synthesis are related to hypertrophy only after attenuation of muscle damage https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27219125/ 1:31:26 Q5 Where to find information on velocity-based training https://massresearchreview.com/ 1:37:16 Closing out   --- Turn your videos into live streams with https://restream.io   --- Music credit: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100806 Artist: http://incompetech.com/