Forever Strength: Recent Episodes
Andrew Coates
Forever Strength is a fitness and strength training podcast hosted by Bailey Lau and Andrew Coates that breaks down important training concepts and brings on special industry guests.
Our member Joanne Peters, also a coach herself, joins us sharing how she went from active in sports, to a black belt in karate, to restricted by a knee injury, to strength training, to coaching others. Joanne loves to combat misconceptions women have about strength training and shares the importance of a supportive community.
Welcome to the latest in a series where we interview our members about their experience with strength training. Kayla Grammer shares how she start with fitness, lost it, but rediscovered through CrossFit. Kayla shares her passion and enjoyment for feeling strong and how it turned into becoming a coach as a side job on top of her primary career.
Enjoy the newest in our members series. Check out how our member Laura found strength training, how it's enhanced her ability to do her job, and how it's helped her feel more confident in gyms and taking up space.
Lavanya Krishnan joins us to share her personal fitness journey and lessons from her career in personal training and public health. We talk about why it's so important for older adults to stay strong and much more. Lavanya also explains what she means when she says "diet" is a noun not a verb.
Our Forever Strength member Tricia joins us to share her experience shifting from always being focused on weight loss to focusing on strength. She shares how this shift allowed for consistency and better progress on all her goals. She highlights how she lost her mother early to a heart attack and didn't want to follow that road. Tricia talks about how much of this journey was about embracing getting outside her comfort zone.
We welcome our client Jalene who shares her experience with fitness as a firefighter and paramedic, doing fire fit, along side struggles with serial dieting and the desire to "be smaller". She shares how she loves being strong and how strength has helped battle some of the conflicting goals and mindsets.
Enjoy this special episode and first of a series where we invite one of our program members to tell their story. Mari-Ann Russell has a great story about starting strength training 30 years ago. She's been dedicated to learning and it shows. Join us as she talks about her experience as a nurse and feeling the need to be stronger for the rigours of her work. She also talks us through sifting through the good and bad information on social media. This one is special so please enjoy and share this with someone in your world who you believe would benefit from starting.
Join us for the short episode on glute training. We cover basic glute anatomy, function, and exercise selection to grow glute and improve performance. Consider joining our next round of Forever Strength, our 13 week women's strength training program, this round's emphasis is on glute training.
Nutrition coach, CEO, and cookie enthusiast Marissa Roy joins us to hammer the value of focusing on the basics in your training and your nutrition. Marissa details early negative influences on her fitness and nutrition before finding credible evidence based resources that shaped her career. Marissa shares her interest in the human behaviour and psychology side of coaching and what she means by "seek to understand not to convince". Enjoy and share with a friend who might see value in our podcast. Thank you so much.
Jacqueline Kasen joins to share wisdom from her career as a group exercise instructor and director along with her passion for mountaineering. Jacqueline differentiates between mountaineering and hiking, and the intense training required. She also shares wisdom about recovery, mental toughness, and dealing with pain and injury,
We turn the tables on Bailey today and she becomes the guest to tell the story of how she started in strength training, her background in sports, and how she started her career as a personal trainer.
Bailey shares the power and importance of the relationship with her clients, how women can start with limiting beliefs but how strength training can change them, and the importance of starting by making sure people feel heard.
Bailey also shares how she injured her knee and the plan for rehab after ACL surgery in the coming weeks.
Today's episode is a special treat. We have Hailey Barragan, Bailey's coach on to share how she got started working out then coaching, how she became interest in powerlifting, and some injury management considerations for training. Hailey also shares why it's important for her own kid to grow up seeing her strength train.
Beth Yarzab guests to share how she got started in strength training, and in fitness education. Beth shares how watching her mother's complicated relationship with her weight and dieting let to her own battles, eventually leading to coaching group exercise.
This is a great discussion for anyone who enjoys fitness and loves the idea go helping people yet may not feel like they've earned the right to coach. Beth shares a lot of info and philosophy about exploring the idea of working in the fitness industry helping others.
Team Stronggirls head coach Jaclyn Phillips joins us to share why she believes all women need to build muscle. Jaclyn shares why she transitioned from a legal career to coaching. She deep dives into defeating common narratives like women need to put themselves last as caregivers, and women shouldn't want to do photoshoots. Jaclyn shares why she feels getting women stronger is a transformative experience.
We explain why we avoid most fitness jargon in our media and with our clients. We also explain what a lot of common terms mean, some basic, some complex, and some in between. Some of it important and useful, and some just over complicates the user experience. We have some fun with this topic. Hope you enjoy.
Stephanie Fusnik joins us to share a masterclass in all things related to women's hormones, metabolism, hunger, menopause, and more. She talks about the impact of chronically elevated cortisol, caffeine, and our addiction to stress. Stephanie shares why women need to put down the baby pink weights" and lift heavier. We also dive into how our personal efforts with healthy lifestyle behaviours can be shame triggers for others and lead to sabotage.
This is a quick hitter for getting to your deeper emotionally driven motives to want to get healthy and active. Knowing your true why will help to keep you on track on the days you don't feel like working out or eating healthy. We explain how to figure this out and why it really matters.
Canadian fitness entrepreneur and journalist Erin Phelan joins us to share how you can find more credible resources for fitness, nutrition, and health information. Erin shares her philosophy behind having not just a plan a, but a plan b and c. Erin shares why she feels accountability is the secret sauce to sustainable fitness success, and a lot more wisdom from a 20+ year career helping people.
San Diego based strength and online coach Lauren Rawls joins us to talk about her journey from wanting to have a Victoria's Secret model figure to embracing muscle, strength, and her nature physique. Lauren shares how she helps the women she coaches go from prioritizing an image based outcome to a strength and performance based outcome. Lauren also shares why she feels it's important to be her most vulnerable self as a role model for other women. Lauren also shares why she thinks it's important to not steal the joy from your nutrition.
While it's amazing to have someone else create your programs to free your mental energy to execute on your training, it's a valuable skill to know the basics of program construction so you can setup effective programs. We take you through some of the most important concepts for how to choose and order your exercises, how to structure your weeks, how frequently to train, and how much volume to do.
To describe this episode with guest Kait Callahan as an episode about mindset, does a great disservice to the depth of knowledge and perspective Kait shares. Kait deconstructs so much of how our narratives keep us stuck in place. Kait explores developing aspirational identity, giving yourself permission, emotional decision making, and much more on this well articulated journey through the power of mindset change for lifestyle change.
We revisit reps in reserve in this episode. We break down why we use RIR in our program and explain how you can use and track it to make better progress.
By request, this episode goes into detail about protein, what it is, how much you need, it's importance while focused on muscle gain or fat loss, and some convenient protein snack options.
We explain why it isn't such a bad thing to be a beginner at strength training, and some essentials worth knowing if you're starting out. This is a good listen and share for someone in your world who wants to start lifting.
A quick hitter episode about what cutting and bulking actually are, how and why you might use them, and some important things to know about these tactics.
Rachel Henley guests to share how she started in fitness by "doing all the wrong things" but finding her way to evidence based strength training, and how that finally led to results. Rachel shares why she prioritizes strength training with her clients. She shares insight into how she approaches social media, and a deeper dive into how to approach training to failure.
All too often people skip workouts because they feel they "don't have enough time". We beg to differ. Here's how to effectively get in workouts if you have a shorter window of time to workout.
Bailey explains why you may need to use a deload week, what a deload means, and how and when to use them.
Bailey explains all or nothing thinking, why it hinders progress, and how we give ourselves permission to fall off track. She explains some tactics to combat all or nothing behaviour, and ways to get back on track faster.
Brianna Battles joins us to talk about all things training for pregnancy, postpartum, and athleticism. She expands on the safety of training during pregnancy for most women and a lot of considerations for core and pelvic floor health. We discuss finding the right coach during pregnancy and a lot more.
Coach and nutritionist Eve Guzman joins us for a deep dive into nutrition. Eve explains how she lost 150 lbs and broke free from the influence of environment growing up, and how she pivoted into a career in nutrition and education. Eve explains nutrition's role in health, why she focuses on the 80/20 rule in her coaching, and why protein is so important. Hope you enjoy this immersive dive into nutrition.
Author, gym owner, coach, strength sport athlete, musician, and much more Melody Schoenfeld joins us to talk about how she started in fitness and coaching. She shares how she found a passion for teaching others and sparking joy however she can. We highlight how women thrive when they get involved in strength training. Melody talks about her 3 books, especially the newest with co-author Lee Boyce.
Strength and nutrition coach Marci Nevin joins us to share her origins: from learning about working out and dieting at a young age, to starting her career. Marci shares all of the positive turns and choices along with all the mistakes along the way that should resonate with your own experience. Marci shares her keys to progress, her thoughts on program lengths, and a lot of mindset advice to help you on your journey.
Jessica Gunn joins us to share how she went from knowing nothing about fitness and nutrition at 37 and feeling unhealthy and unhappy, to starting a fitness career at 38, to having a thriving business and brand at 42. Jessica shares how she's willing to get uncomfortable, learn new skills, be a healthy role model for her 4 children, and how she's thrived to be asked to public speak. Jessica shares how she went from thinking about the value of the number on the scale, to focusing on feeling strong. She shares her passion and mission to get weights in the hands of more women.
We discuss the New Years resolution phenomenon and why it's better to get a start early. Get a jump start on your fitness and avoid setting yourself up to fail. This is a great episode to share with the people in your life who are looking at getting active this new year. We also share details and our bonus offer for this latest round of our Forever Strength program.
Strength Coach and PPSC Master Instructor Tasha Wolf Whelan joins us to share how she got started in the fitness industry and went from endurance running to strength sports across her 20 year career. Tasha shares how she started wanting to build her body to gain confidence. Tasha shares how you can use principles from strongman training to make workouts fun and effective for everyday people. Tasha highlights the importance of approaching strength training as a skill to develop and why warmups are important. She also shares some wisdom about how to deal with "bad" training days.
Beth Feraco joins as a special guest to share her story of recovery to working out to training others to scaling a business with employees. Beth leaned into a strong social media presence built around no nonsense messaging. Beth shares some of the common challenges her clients face and how she helps to rewire the damage caused by being raised in environments where yoyo dieting was normal for women growing up.
Our industry loves to complain about gym etiquette but are we really teaching people good etiquette or using this as an opportunity to shame people. We cover all the basics of gym etiquette and some nuance for things like phone use and sharing equipment that isn't as black or white as we might think.
We explain what creatine is, why you could benefit from taking it, dispel the common myths about creatine, and some practical considerations of this highly studied, effective, and safe supplement.
We dive into what you need to know to optimize muscle growth. We get into the balance and nuance of volume, intensity, progressive overload, mechanical tension, plus recovery, nutrition, and supplements.
Dr. Susie Spirlock aka Dr. Susie Squats joins us to share how she got into strength training and how that path led to working in physical therapy. Susie dispels some myths about how physio treatments work and the importance of how we use language around injuries and training. Susie also shares her thoughts on what the consumer should be focused instead of most supplements, with the exception of the powerful benefits of creatine. Enjoy Susie's first ever podcast appearance, the first of what should be many.
People often hop between programs the moment they no longer feel sore. Some people crave constant novelty. But is this actually helping you progress? We explain why it's beneficial to wait a little longer and some tactics for keeping your program from getting stale while optimizing your progress. Share this with someone in your world who needs it.
We deep dive into the reasons you would benefit from hiring a coach. This isn't a push to suggest that everyone needs one. We also give a lot of detail in how to carefully research and choose the right coach for you.
A common question with a nuanced answer. What's the best time of day to workout? It invariably answers as, the time that best fits into your day so that you'll consistently do it. But we go through some expanded thoughts and the pros and cons of mornings, afternoons, evenings, and our own personal preferences.
Defining "what is healthy" is a tricky endeavour. We take a walk through factors that affect physical and emotional health, from blood sugar and blood pressure, to environment and access to health care. We can't look at a person and determine how healthy they are, or know whether their relationship with nutrition and exercise is healthy. We also need to understand there is a strong base of evidence to indicate that long term health outcomes are significantly affected by higher levels of body fat. We want to create access to knowledge and resources that can help someone engage in healthy lifestyle behaviour, regardless of where they come from.
You've probably heard of "functional training". We explain what fitness marketing sells it as, vs what being functional truly means. Bailey explains how strength training is functional in everyday life and as we get older.
Angela Gargano guests to share her knowledge and experience in coaching women how to train for and perform pull-ups. Angela has more than a little authority on pull-ups given her 4 appearances on American Ninja Warrior. Hope you enjoy this one.
We dive into the importance of warmups and cooldowns, what matters, what doesn't, methods for each, and why long warmups aren't helping as much as you might think.
We explain what DOMS is, why it happens, why it's not a good indicator of a good workout, and everything else related to muscle soreness.
We dive into the similarities and differences between training for strength and for hypertrophy. We break down the science and practical implications of training at different rep ranges.
Sal Nakhlawi is a New York based coach and advocate for women to develop inner and outer strength through strength training. Sal details her inspiring background and philosophies in guiding women to be their best selves. Sal shares her wisdom to get started in the gym, overcome gym intimidation, and much more.
We define the difference between form and technique and dive into a nuanced discussion of their importance. We dive into the research on what matters and doesn't seem to matter concerning injury risk while training. We discuss the importance of not using language that makes people fearful of lifting weights or feel broken.
The fitness industry loves tribal and ideological battles over training principles and nutrition. Volume vs intensity is one such false dichotomy. The truth is closer to train volume with intensity. We define each and related elements like training to failure and allowing for enough recovery.
Today we talk about considerations about strength training for young people, adults, and older adults. We dispel some of the age related myths like kids shouldn't lift weights or how older adults shouldn't do powerful movement.
In today's episode we explain range of motion in strength training. We explain a lot of the mechanisms behind progress in your training and how range of motion and related concepts matter.
Thanks for tuning in to today's topic. We explore unilateral training, its benefits, and how to implement in your training.
Won Dolegowski brings her nutrition expertise to the show to share practical strategies for nutrition for those who are focused on getting stronger in the gym. Won walks us through how to approach the first few steps for beginners, how to meet people where they're currently at, thoughts on managing pressure to look lean while eating to perform, the impact of alcohol on nutrition, and how to navigate fad diets.
We are opening our 3rd intake of our 13 week strength training program, which shares its name with our podcast, Forever Strength. It's a progressive strength training group program and online community for women who want to feel strong, confident, learn the skills to lift for life. We provide more details about the benefits of our program and hope its something you may benefit from, or that it might be just right for someone in your world. Thanks for listening.
We dive into some practical advice for including both strength and conditioning work into your programs. We explain some myths and the established science of how strength and conditioning work together.
We take a walk through the important considerations when dealing with injuries and pain in your training. We discuss when to see qualified physiotherapists and clinicians, scope of practice for trainers, and more. We talk about a lot of strategies for what you can do to continue to train while not aggravating current issues. We also highlight why its important to do what you can instead of quitting.
Susan Niebergall is our first guest and she shares her wisdom and experience about how strength training can improve the quality of your life. Susan shares her thoughts on getting started with strength training, how to keep consistent through roadblocks, and how strength training is a great investment in yourself.
Getting started can feel like a daunting task. Maybe you're experienced but sharing this episode with a new friend or family member might go a long way to helping the get started and feel comfortable in a gym. We talk about what to look for in choosing a gym , choosing a coach, and some basics on goal setting and how to approach a starting program.
Everyone wants results. Results aren't just from tireless work, but carefully thought out rest and recovery. We explain how rest works both between sets and between workouts. Listen for more on how to use rest, sleep, and nutrition basics for recovery.
We've all heard the women lifting weights = bulky myth. We take this myth apart and highlight all the benefits of strength training.
Episode 2 mentions progressive overload so we felt it deserved its own deeper dive. Why progressive overload is important, different ways to approach progressive overload, and some thoughts on how to frame plateaus for discouraged clients.
Welcome to our second episode where Andrew and Bailey tackle important fitness concepts. Today we dive into the importance of consistency. We explain why frequent program hopping doesn't work.
Welcome to the first episode of the Forever Strength Podcast. Bailey Lau and Andrew Coates explore important training concepts, starting with Reps In Reserve and an exploration of the science behind should you train to failure. If you're finding our podcast for the first time. Hope you subscribe and enjoy future topics and some planned big guest episodes.