Cheeky Mid Weeky

What separates great strength coaches from those who simply write programs? Justin Lima sits down with AK for an unfiltered conversation about coaching, athlete development, and the importance of context in strength and conditioning.

AK explains why she openly shares her training programs, challenges the industry's obsession with normative data, and discusses how she incorporates isometrics, tendon loading, and individualized programming with collegiate volleyball athletes.

They also discuss training male and female athletes, building trust, using competition to increase training intent, and why coaches need to stop overcomplicating the weight room. At the center of...

Dr. Brian Biagioli is the Graduate Program Director for Strength and Conditioning in the Department of Kinesiology and Sport Science at the University of Miami. He established the university’s Strength and Conditioning/Fitness Entrepreneurship graduate program in 2009, which has earned NSCA Educational Recognition since 2011.

An author of three college textbooks, Dr. Biagioli has presented internationally and remains heavily involved in accreditation, certification standards, education, and advancing the strength and conditioning profession. His work has helped prepare students for careers across high school, collegiate, professional, and international sport, as well as entrepreneurship and doctoral education.

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In this week's Supertraining in a year pod Yosef and Justin pivot from the book and talk with Robert Heiduk. Robert is an author and researcher who went to Japan to learn from the creator of KAATSU Dr. Yoshiaki Sato. KAATSU is the original BFR and in his episode Yosef and Justin dig into KAATSU and how coaches can put KAATSU into their practice in the weight room and on the field. Robert is a wealth of knowledge. Learn more about KAATSU:

https://kaatsu-education.com/

https://kaatsu-education.com/journal/

https://www.sciencedirect.com...

Hear from Yosef in this Supertraining in a Year podcast episode explain to Justin why team sport athletes do NOT need to do overspeed sprinting. Just because it is popular does not mean it should be done.

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Breanne Rowe, MS, CSCS, TSAC-F, RSCC is a strength and conditioning coach currently supporting the 13th Air Support Operations Squadron in Colorado. Her experience spans tactical performance, personal training, higher education, and human performance, with a strong focus on helping athletes and military personnel improve performance and resilience.

Prior to her current role, Rowe worked as a strength and conditioning coach with LMR Technical Group and spent more than six years as a personal trainer at PRO Sports Club. She earned both her bachelor's degree in Clinical Physiology and master's degree in Integrative Human Physiology from Central...

In this episode of Supertraining in a Year, Justin Lima and Yosef Johnson work through pages 526–540 and a central theme emerges: you cannot microwave adaptation.

The discussion begins with the problems associated with premature intensification and early specialization. Faster, harder, and more intense training may produce results early, but that doesn't necessarily mean it creates the foundation for continued development later.

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LSU Sports Dietitian Allison Wade joins the podcast to break down what performance nutrition actually looks like when working with athletes every day.

Allison and Justin discuss the relationship between strength coaches and dietitians, sweat testing and hydration, fueling different sports, body composition, supplements, blood testing, nutrition during injury and return to play, and why nutrition has to be individualized to the athlete.

They also dive into something that goes beyond macros and meal plans: food is cultural. Allison explains why understanding an athlete’s background, preferences, and relationship with food is critical to creating bu...

Alex Kanellis is the founder of Landmine University, a former University of Iowa football player, competitive wrestler, strength coach, and innovator in rotational power training. Holding a master's degree in kinesiology and the CSCS credential, Kanellis developed the Landmine University Training System after multiple shoulder and bicep surgeries led him to seek alternatives to traditional Olympic lifting.

His coaching philosophy centers on developing explosive athletic performance through rotational, core-driven movement patterns that better reflect the demands of sport. Through concepts such as forward intent, coiled postures, and rotational power, Kanellis has built a unique training system that...

The conversation covers current adaptation reserve (CAR), protein synthesis, the sarcoplasmic reticulum, contractile and mitochondrial proteins, supercompensation, and the different cellular responses that occur when developing speed, strength, endurance, and speed endurance.

But the practical message is much simpler: cut the noise.

More training isn't automatically better training. Justin and Yosef discuss finding the appropriate dose of stress, giving athletes enough time to adapt, resisting the urge to constantly change programs, and understanding why high-intensity methods can't be used all the time.

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Chris Martin is the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Louisiana State University Baseball, where he helped guide the Tigers to the 2025 National Championship in his first season in Baton Rouge.

Before joining LSU, Martin spent six seasons with the Houston Astros, serving in multiple roles including Minor League Strength and Conditioning Coordinator and Rehab Strength & Conditioning Coordinator. He oversaw performance training throughout the Astros' minor league system, played a key role in redesigning return-to-play protocols for injured athletes, and helped support the development of numerous future Major League players.

A former pitcher at Kent...

Matt Aldred returns to the podcast after helping Michigan Men’s Basketball win a National Championship, but this conversation isn’t about taking credit for the title.

Matt and Justin dive into what the championship season taught him about coaching: keeping training simple, minimum effective dose, learning from individual athletes, adjusting volume, building leadership capital, communicating with players, and understanding when doing less can actually produce more.

They also discuss warm-ups as an opportunity to microdose training, using GPS and force-plate data without allowing technology to dictate coaching, learning from other sports on campus, and why...

Chris Martin is the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Louisiana State University Baseball, where he helped guide the Tigers to the 2025 National Championship in his first season in Baton Rouge.

Before joining LSU, Martin spent six seasons with the Houston Astros, serving in multiple roles including Minor League Strength and Conditioning Coordinator and Rehab Strength & Conditioning Coordinator. He oversaw performance training throughout the Astros' minor league system, played a key role in redesigning return-to-play protocols for injured athletes, and helped support the development of numerous future Major League players.

A former pitcher at Kent...

Rick Brunner joins Justin Lima and Yosef Johnson for a conversation spanning four decades of sports nutrition and performance science.

Rick shares how his trips to the Soviet Union in the 1980s connected him with scientists studying creatine, adaptogens, recovery, and athletic performance—eventually leading him to introduce creatine to elite American athletes around 1987.

The guys dive into supplement quality, brain health, recovery, neuromuscular performance, reaction and quickness, and how nutrition should work alongside training.

Rick also explains why the future isn't simply about building bigger muscles. It's about developing reactive, healthy, quick mu...

What could the STRONG Act actually mean for strength and conditioning coaches?

Rachel Newman, Marketing Manager for Customers and Community at TeamBuildr, joins Justin to break down why strength and conditioning needs its own SOC designation, what that could mean for salary and employment data, funding for personnel and professional development, and why coaches need to continue supporting the STRONG Act.

They also discuss why the profession needs to unite around the title Strength and Conditioning Coach, how better federal data could help coaches understand career opportunities and compensation, and why this is a long-term...

Mike Woicik is one of the most accomplished strength and conditioning coaches in NFL history. Across 30 years in the league, he won six Super Bowl championships — three with the Dallas Cowboys and three with the New England Patriots — after beginning his career at Springfield College and Syracuse.

Mike joins Justin to look back at the evolution of strength and conditioning through a career that spanned multiple eras of the profession. They discuss the influence of Soviet training methods, Boyd Epley’s impact on Mike early in his career, bringing a college-style development program into the NFL, position-specific condit...

In this episode of Supertraining in a Year, Justin and Yosef break down pages 466–480 and explore the relationship between pain, injury, and training. They discuss why pain doesn’t always reflect the severity of an injury, how microtrauma can accumulate over time, and why preparing athletes for imperfect and unexpected positions may be an important part of building robustness.

As always, this podcast is commentary on Supertraining—not a replacement for reading the book.

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Dr. Chad Herring is a Human Performance Specialist and Lead Strength & Conditioning Specialist supporting the United States Special Operations Command through KBR. His work focuses on integrating strength and conditioning, sport science, recovery, and performance analytics to enhance warfighter readiness and resilience.

Prior to USSOCOM, Herring served as Director of Sport Science for football at Florida Atlantic University and held leadership roles in both private-sector performance and AI-driven training technology. He earned his PhD in Exercise Physiology from the University of Central Florida and has coached across collegiate athletics, professional baseball, and tactical performance settings

$1...

Are your athletes actually recovered — or do they just feel recovered?

In this episode of Supertraining in a Year, Justin Lima and Yosef Johnson work through pages 451–465 of Supertraining, focusing on restoration, recovery, testing, and how coaches can actually apply these concepts.

The bigger question throughout the episode: Are we using recovery and testing with a specific purpose, or are we just doing things because that's what everyone else does?

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Stephanie Mock Grubbs joins the Cheeky Mid Weeky to discuss leadership, career development, building performance systems, and her journey from collegiate strength and conditioning into professional baseball.

Stephanie shares lessons from her time at Clemson, Mississippi State, and Pitt, including preparing for leadership before getting the title, developing staff, creating systems that last, and why working across multiple sports helped build the toolbox she uses today.

We also dive into her work in professional baseball, including navigating the 162-game schedule, training different player groups, managing travel and accumulated stress, working with veteran athletes, and continuing...

Tommie Dorsey III, CSCS, M.A. is a Tactical Strength and Conditioning Coach with Serco in Hawaii and the Head Strength Coach for football at Kahuku High School. His coaching experience spans tactical, collegiate, private-sector, and high school performance settings, with a focus on long-term athlete development, movement quality, and evidence-based training.

Prior to his current roles, Dorsey worked in strength and conditioning at Northern Arizona University and St. John's University, coaching athletes across a variety of sports. He earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Northern Arizona University and has a strong interest in sport...

In this episode of Supertraining in a Year, Justin Lima and Yosef Johnson cover pages 441–450 and dive into overtraining, recovery, and restoration — including the difference between general and local overtraining and why youth sport volume can create recovery problems that extend far beyond the weight room.

They discuss why athletes don't always need to be fully recovered, how restoration should be periodized alongside training, and why repeatedly using the same recovery methods can become less effective. The conversation also explores how Soviet coaches approached massage, active recovery, psychological restoration, and other methods decades before many became popular toda...

Kevin Maxen, Director of Sports Performance and Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Tufts University, joins Justin Lima on the Cheeky Mid Weeky.

Before arriving at Tufts, Maxen spent four years with the Jacksonville Jaguars and made stops at Vanderbilt, Baylor, Iowa, Army West Point, the private sector, and high school strength and conditioning.

Kevin and Justin discuss what it actually means to be a strength coach, lessons learned from Coach Chris Doyle, moving away from the stereotypical “old-school” strength coach, work-life integration, developing young coaches, and why the profession needs to take itself more seriously.

Malorie Henderlong is the Assistant Director of Sports Performance at Auburn University, where she leads strength and conditioning and applied sport science efforts for Women's Soccer. Her work focuses on integrating performance training, GPS monitoring, athlete management systems, and sports science to enhance athlete development and availability.

Prior to Auburn, Henderlong held sports performance roles at North Carolina State University, Baylor University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Texas Christian University. A former collegiate soccer player, she earned her bachelor's degree from Spring Arbor University and her master's degree from Texas Christian University.

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In this episode of Supertraining in a Year, Justin Lima and Yosef Johnson break down pages 421–435 of Supertraining.

The conversation covers needs analysis, athlete testing, reducing injury risk, contact preparation, exercise selection, and the Minimax Principle. They also discuss minimum effective dose, eliminating unnecessary training volume, and why coaches should constantly ask whether an exercise is actually accomplishing its intended purpose.

Plus, Yosef explains how Soviet sport systems evaluated athletes and why many concepts considered “new” in strength and conditioning have been around for decades.

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BONUS Cheeky Mid Weeky episode for all the football S&C coaches out there! 🏈

Dr. Thomas Stallworth II joins the show to share lessons from more than 20 years in strength and conditioning across HBCUs, Power 5 football, and the NFL.

We discuss leadership, culture, mental toughness, psychology, relationships with athletes, sports science, and why strength coaches may be making training more complicated than it needs to be.

Coach Stallworth also shares stories from the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons, Mississippi State's rise to No. 1, developing Chris Jones, and what he's learned about what rea...

Lonnie Maddox is the Associate Director of Football Sports Performance at University of North Carolina. Prior to joining North Carolina, he served as an assistant strength coach at Kansas State University, helping the Wildcats to a 9-4 season and a victory in the 2024 Rate Bowl.

Before Kansas State, Maddox was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Valdosta State University and Alcorn State University, where he played a key role in multiple conference championships and deep postseason runs. A certified CSCS, RSCC, and USA Weightlifting Level 1 coach, Maddox earned his bachelor's degree from Troy University and his...

Liam is the Head Coach of Sporting Olympique Avignon XIII and Co-Founder of Tackle University, where he helps coaches and players develop a deeper understanding of rugby league performance and tactics. He is also the creator of Rugby League IQ, an online coaching community focused on player and coach development.

Based in the United Kingdom, Liam combines coaching, education, and entrepreneurship to support the growth of rugby league athletes and coaches around the world. He holds a Master's degree from the University of Hull.

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Tevaun Smith is a former professional football player and current financial services professional based in Toronto, Canada. After playing for the Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, and in the Canadian Football League, Smith transitioned into financial services, helping individuals, business owners, and athletes navigate insurance, estate planning, and long-term wealth strategies.

Drawing from his own experience as a professional athlete, Smith focuses on protecting income, reducing risk, and building long-term financial security. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa and has completed business and finance leadership programs through the University of Miami.

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Keith Belton has coached at nearly every level of sport—from the NFL and Power 4 football to the NBA and Olympic sports. In this episode, we discuss his journey into strength and conditioning, lessons from coaching Robert Griffin III during his Heisman season, working alongside Chip Kelly, the proper role of sports science, and why leadership is ultimately about serving others.

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Whitney Lee, MS, AT, LAT, CSCS is a dual-credentialed athletic trainer and strength coach currently supporting the U.S. Air Force's Operational Health and Wellness (OHWS) program in Okinawa, Japan. With more than 15 years of experience in athletic training, performance, and rehabilitation, she has worked across military, collegiate, high school, and private-sector settings.

Lee is also the owner of Athletic Medicine LLC and previously served as an athletic trainer at Grand Canyon University, California University of Pennsylvania, and multiple Arizona high schools. She earned her bachelor's degree from Grand Canyon University and her master's degree in Athletic...

Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) is much more than a rehab tool.

In this episode of Cheeky Mid Weeky, Mark Mitchell shares how he integrates BFR into warm-ups, conditioning, in-season lifting, recovery, and travel. He also explains why great coaches don't chase one method—they build a toolbox and use the right tool for the right athlete.

Learn more about Hytro BFR here:

https://hytro.com/pages/basketball?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=paid-media&utm_campaign=basketball&utm_content=journal&utm_term=mens-performance

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In this episode of Supertraining in a Year, Justin Lima and Yosef Johnson continue their journey through Supertraining, covering pages 376–420.

Pages 376-405 were covered last week when Justin was at NSCA National but Yosef's camera stopped working again - they cover those pages briefly then they move on.

This week's discussion dives into one of the most information-dense sections of the book, covering Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF), functional training, accommodating resistance, accelerated eccentric methods, and hypertrophy. Along the way, they explore why many "new" training concepts are actually decades old, how coaches should think about ex...

Mark Mitchell has spent 15 years coaching Division I men's basketball, and in this conversation he shares the principles that have shaped his approach to developing elite athletes.

Rather than following one training system, Mark explains why he's become principle-based instead of method-based, blending traditional strength training with modern performance methods to meet the demands of today's basketball athlete.

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Dr. Ken Clark is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at West Chester University, where he teaches biomechanics, motor learning, and kinetic anatomy. His research focuses on sprint performance, movement mechanics, injury mechanisms, and skill acquisition, with publications in many of the field's leading journals.

Clark has more than a decade of strength and conditioning coaching experience across the private, high school, and collegiate levels, including stops at Summit Sports, CES Performance, Dickinson College, Haverford College, and Villanova University. He earned his PhD in Applied Physiology and Biomechanics from Southern Methodist University and is a...

Nicholas Lee, BS, CSCS, RSCC, USAW-L1 is the H2F Lead Tactical Strength and Conditioning Coach at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. With more than 20 years of military service, including time in Army Special Operations and conventional forces, Lee brings a unique blend of tactical leadership and human performance expertise to his coaching.

Prior to his current role, Lee worked with EXOS as an H2F Tactical Strength and Conditioning Coach and served as Director of Strength and Conditioning at Freedom Christian Academy. He earned his bachelor's degree in Sports and Exercise Science from Methodist University and is...

Sean Hayes has built performance programs at every level—from playing at Harvard University to coaching at Penn State University, the Houston Texans, WWE, and now serving as Director of Player Performance for the UFL.

In this episode, Sean shares lessons from his mentors, building WWE's first comprehensive strength program, coaching NFL stars like J. J. Watt, and preparing UFL players for NFL opportunities.

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Matt Durant is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at University of La Verne, where he oversees performance training for all 20 varsity sports. A 1999 La Verne graduate, Durant returned to his alma mater in 2002 and has spent more than two decades developing student-athletes and building a highly respected Division III strength and conditioning program.

In 2017, Durant was named the National Sports Performance Association Coach of the Year. During his tenure, numerous athletes have earned conference, regional, and national recognition, including multiple National Strength and Conditioning Association All-America Strength and Conditioning Athlete of the Year honors.

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This week, Justin Lima and Yosef Johnson discuss why long-term athlete development often gets sacrificed for flashy training, how Verkhoshansky's long-term delayed training effect changes programming, and why the best coaches focus on serving athletes—not impressing social media.

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Dr. Eric Cash serves as President of the National High School Strength Coaches Association and is the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Dorman High School. Widely recognized as one of the leading voices in high school strength and conditioning, Dr. Cash has dedicated his career to developing young athletes through evidence-based training, mentorship, and long-term athletic development.

Prior to Dorman, he held head strength and conditioning positions at Presbyterian College, Eastern Illinois University, and Elon University. He earned his doctorate in Kinesiology from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and was named NHSSCA Coach of the Year...

In this episode of Supertraining in a Year, Justin Lima and Jeff Moyer break down pages 331–360 of Yuri Verkhoshansky's Supertraining and dive into some of the most misunderstood topics in strength and conditioning.

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Hawkin Dynamics is the world le...