From 2009 to 2020, The Biggest Loser was a phenomenon. A huge cultural moment. What it wasn’t, however, was a show about healthy lifestyles and healthy weight loss. Netflix’s Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser examines what it was like...
Our gym, Third Street Barbell, is blessed to have three physical therapy providers as members at the moment. Ammar and Moe work together in a clinic that treats patients covered by workers comp insurance. Are the metrics of p...
Some things definitely diminish with age, but the need for strength is not among them. After being introduced to designing fitness training for others in the Coast Guard and a career in the California Highway Patrol, Ralph Ca...
Unlike some powerlifters who turn to bodybuilding, Riley always knew it was something he wanted to do. Other goals and priorities simply got in the way. When the opportunity came to leave construction work and retail manageme...
Powerlifter and Registered Dietitian Dan Feldman guests this episode to break down some nutrition strategies for competitive powerlifters. Is a crazy amount of protein necessary? Are carbs around workouts good or bad? You can...
The former International Powerlifting Federation affiliate representing the United States, the USAPL, took to instagram recently to criticize the integrity of its drug testing program through WADA. The post using quotes from ...
Justin Wright is a sales executive who found himself in a position that’s all too common for executives: overweight and out of shape. Work stress, the demands of travel and entertaining, inconsistent diet, family responsibili...
Toby spent a decade as a first responder -- with all the stress and hazards those careers entail. Then, he left it all behind to marry a woman with a military career. Military families are used to not having control of a lot ...
Just a couple of days past the official Men’s Mental Health Month, we take a look at a short, but powerful documentary available on YouTube, “The Voices of Men.” It was produced in the UK and is driven by men telling their pe...
Some athletes are made for super stardom on the field of play, but truly fumble in their personal lives. Brett Favre is one of them. From dick pic scandals to alleged fraud, Farve tarnished his legacy with a series of seeming...
At Third Street Barbell, we’re lucky enough to have three physical therapists as members. Jim’s been working with Patrick Bell on a shoulder injury and has been very impressed with his knowledge and how he structures and comm...
Jacob Ross joins Jim to take on the question, “Why do so many lifters resist training in groups in the current age of powerlifting?” We also cover Jacob’s time working with the South Sudanese Olympic Basketball team in Paris ...
Mike is out of town, so Jim brought in one of Third Street Barbell’s most consistent and inspirational members, Josh Hajar. Josh is an emergency department nurse who faced a harrowing fight with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and th...
Psychedelics in psychotherapy. That’s the theme of this four-part documentary from Netflix. Can psychedelics break damaging thought patterns and allow people to heal from depression and trauma? This doc series would like to p...
Netflix’s Untold documentary series takes a look at the phenomenon of The Liver King. Purportedly already a multi-millionaire, Brian Johnson launched a muscular social media and YouTube presence as a “primal” influencer who u...
Under pressure from, well, pretty much everyone, it appears the IPF will allow stiff knee sleeves through the end of 2026. World’s Strongest Man is back in Sacramento this week, just about a mile from our gym. We take a look ...
We’ve been talking about cults and how they’re covered in the media. Back in 2021, we looked at the HBO documentary series “The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin” on a couple of episodes. It is about a crazy, scary religious cult....
The founder of the biggest YouTube skateboarding channel is a Scientologist. Has that fact become public, explaining the channel's drop in popularity over the past few years? Was it the money he spent climbing the rungs of this cult (and not on his...
We’re taking a closer look at a topic that we’ve touched on briefly before: Media covering the effects and inner workings of cults. The HBO documentary Going Clear is one of the most recognizable documentaries about the Church of Scientology....
A couple of episodes ago, we talked about a dramatic change in leadership at the International Powerlifting Federation. The latest wrinkle is that the federation has recently notified the manufacturers of “stiff” knee sleeves that their products are...
A stroll back 13 years in time takes us to a very “well-reviewed” nutrition documentary that ultimately only delivers a laundry list of fear appeals, misinformation, and pro-vegan propaganda. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a vegan, but...
We take a stab at which jobs AI might eliminate (do you want your drive-through order taken by a bot?). Plus, the long-time IPF president resigned suddenly a few weeks ago. Is there any situation where a quick exit from a top position like that...
The 5-part Netflix Documentary Court of Gold chronicles the 2024 Olympic Basketball tournament in Paris. It’s obviously a love letter to the gold medalist US team, but more specifically, Kevin Durrant, Steph Curry, and to a lesser extent, LeBron...
The third sequel to the bodybuilding documentary Generation Iron is all about the natties. It follows a group of competitors during the countdown to the Natural Olympia of 2019. Will natural bodybuilding ever gain the kind of traction that its...
