Building a strong nutritional baseline is the key to sustainable, healthy holiday eating. Don't derail for your health & fitness goals due to the holidays! How to Build a Nutrition Baseline Building a nutritional baseline is the ultimate holiday eating hack that let's you truly enjoy special holidays meals and days without totally derailing from yo…

Lift your way to a leaner you. Strength training is your secret weapon to leanness, despite the lingering weight loss myth that you should simply diet and do cardio. Debunking the Weight Loss Myth of Cardio & Caloric Restriction You go to the doctor and the doctor tells you that you need to lose a certain amount of weight for your health. He questi…

Buy back your time with a professional coach. Coaching yourself means less progress in the gym and more time learning to become a coach. Buy Back Your Time: Grocery Delivery Example You probably need to value your time more. Too often, people avoid certain purchases because they deem them as too expensive. Sometimes this is true, but often buying b…

Pain and setbacks can derail progress. Overcoming pain and setbacks requires addressing your why and acknowledging how you feel when you perform healthy habits. Overcoming Pain and Setbacks: Oh Snap! A client finds himself making progress in all areas of fitness, at the lightest bodyweight in years and working toward specific barbell numbers. He ha…

Mastering fitness habits is the key to crushing your goals and gaining lasting results to boost your health and quality of life. Mastering Fitness Habits: Actions You Do No Matter What Habits are things you do without making new decisions. For Andrew, his four healthy habits are walking, food choices, sleep, and training. He can go on auto-pilot in…

Learn why you should walk more, how it improves your health, mindfulness, and quality of life. Don't eschew this pedestrian but effective fitness tool. Physical Fitness Benefits of Walking More A good reason why you should walk more is because it provides many health & fitness benefits. Andrew mentions a study that shows that the benefits of walkin…

Learn about how Jack Armstrong, BLOC client, completed the Three Peaks Challenge for charity. You can donate to the cause here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/daniel-surphlis-1718352507474 Three Peaks Challenge for Charity Jack Armstrong, BLOC client, competed the Three Peaks Challenge. The challenge involves climbing the 3 highest peaks in Scotla…

Subscribe to the Build Your Business podcast hosted by Matt & Chris Reynolds, who help you overcome the fears, unknowns, and challenges of business ownership. Learn more about Ryan Matt Reynolds. Learn more about Chris Reynolds, CEO & Founder of Surton. Subscribe to the Build Your Business Podcast If you have a skill or passion you're good at, you …

Struggling to get back into the gym after a long break? Learn how to overcome mental and physical challenges and restart your fitness journey with our beginner's guide. Returning to the Gym After a Long Break: Shift Your Mental Mindset You went on a vacation, got sick, had a baby, were injured, or had your gym closed down. How do you get back to wo…

Should I lift if I'm tired? It depends, on your tendencies, goals, experience, normal state, and more. We help you answer for yourself if you should lift today. Should I Train if I'm Tired? Experience & Tendencies You're going to feel tired sometimes. What do you do if you feel tired? Should you train? It depends. Niki recently felt tired and ended…

Learn how to get your back back after a chronic injury. It takes patience, focus on recovery, and a focus on what is truly important. How to Get Your Back Back: What Is Your Goal? You have to remember what your goal is. What matters most to you? Niki had an emotional attachment, built over years with baked-in assumptions she had to reevaluate, abou…

Prioritizing your health helps boost all other priorities in your life. Respect yourself and your boundaries and learn how to prioritize your health, no matter what. How to Prioritize Your Health: Set & Protect Boundaries Do not allow work travel or other obligations cause you to abandon your priorities. If you lose your health your work and those …

A powerlifting meet gives lifters and coaches an opportunity for performance under pressure. Learn the whys, hows, and whats of powerlifting meets. Learn about this and the exciting new International Barbell Federation (IBF). Powerlifting Meets for Everyday Lifters You don't have to be a 700 lb deadlifter to benefit from a strengthlifting meet. Peo…

Why participate in barbell competition, and if you decide to compete how do you approach it. Learn about this and the exciting new International Barbell Federation (IBF). Barbell Competition Benefits Andrew interviews Jordan Stanton, owner of Next Level Barbell and the Strength Union, both in or around Portland, OR, as well as former owner of the U…

When you know you have a good product, service, or solution, you have unshakeable confidence. How do you develop this? Learn what this is and how you develop it! Unshakeable Confidence: Is It Possible & What Is It? Andrew saw a video of someone handing out bags of money and reacting to people accepting or not accepting it. Seems pretty crazy, to tu…

Stronger means harder to kill, more able to fulfill your work and domestic obligations, and more useful overall. Listen to Matt's talk to the Tactical Response alumni. This group of people cares about being prepared, protecting themselves and their loved ones, and more capable overall. If they are weak, however, they have a gap, and they need to be…

We cover the good, the bad, and the ugly in the recent games in this 2024 Olympics Wrap-Up. 2024 Olympics Wrap-Up: the Impressive & the Controversial You have to admit it, Olympians' performances are impressive. The amount of work over years and decades is immense. Genetic gifts abound, but so do mindset and work ethic abilities. Olympians' RPE 10 …

Back pain for lifters can be scary & frustrating & varies in severity. Learn the causes, treatments, approaches, & red flags as a lifter and coach. Rebekah Krieg, Exclusive Coach & former long-time physical therapist, discusses back pain, how to approach it as a lifter and coach, and red flags contraindicate training. Back Pain for Lifters: Part of…

Take action and train because time & strength wait for no one. Get the most out of your training, & don't spend any more time without barbell training. Take Action and Train: Time & Strength Waits for No One Time is our most valuable asset because we can never earn more of it. We can make changes to make more money. We cannot make changes to earn m…

Tackling tweaks can be terrifying. You're lifting and suddenly - OUCH - pain. We discuss how to handle these tweaks. Tackling Tweaks: Don't Catastrophize You're lifting, all is going well, then suddenly you feel pain. What do you do? How do you handle this? Why me, why now!? It can be easy to catastrophize, to immediately assume the worst. The real…

How does consistency help us reach our goals? We explore the fundamental but undervalued lynchpin to success that is consistency. Consistency: Lynchpin for Success Repeated action brings you toward your goal. Obviously, if you want to learn Latin, you need to study Latin regularly - studying Mandarin Chinese will not help. That being said, a medioc…

Learn how to get beyond the sticking points, where failure and quitting too often arise but opportunity and long-term success await those who intelligently persevere. Minimum Effective Action: Where is the Progress? PRs have stopped, you're not feeling as good as you had been, you'll not looking forward to your time in the gym like you had been. So…

Learn how to get beyond the sticking points, where failure and quitting too often arise but opportunity and long-term success await those who intelligently persevere. Get Beyond the Sticking Points: Frustration, Failure, & Quitting There is a time around 6 weeks into an attempted habit implementation, new diet, or workout routine, where people tend…

How do we confront uncomfortable truths about ourselves, not get bogged down in negativity, and move toward our goals. Uncomfortable Truths: Coming to Terms with Your Shortcomings You set a goal. Inherent is this is that you do not like what you are doing now. Something must change. You have probably intertwined your identity with the actions that …

We investigate accessory lifts: what's the point? Why do auxiliary lifts and how should you think about incorporating them into your training? Accessory Lifts: What's the Point? It's that time of year, where people begin to go on vacation and either take breaks from lifting or ask to do hotel workouts (which they often do not do). What may cause, i…