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Muscles & Management Podcast

Muscles and Management takes an in depth look at all things training and business.

Gerry DeFilippo is a gym owner from northern New Jersey with a business degree in management from Rutgers University. He started his gym/sports performance business during his last semester of business school and almost three years later he runs the day-to-day business aspects of Challenger Strength as well as heading the strength training.

This podcast will take on any and all topics in both strength training, personal fitness and business and welcome the perspective of some of the best coaches and business minds in the industry. Whether you are an aspiring gym owner, athlete or coach you will enjoy all aspects of this podcast as we dive into the "ins and outs," of the sports performance industry as well as what it takes to excel in business.

Episode #41 Creating Synergy Between Quality Movement, Strength and Speed with Zach Dechant

10/9/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1823737-episode-41-creating-synergy-between-quality-movement-strength-and-speed-with-zach-dechant

In this episode Gerry welcomes on TCU Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning, Zach Dechant to talk all things movement, strength and speed.

To start, Gerry and Zach talk about Zach's series, Movement Over Maxes, and what inspired Zach to begin the series. Zach discusses the importance of building quality movement with the main movement patterns (push, pull, squat, hinge, split squat variations) as well as key sprinting and jumping mechanics. Zach felt that there was a huge area of improvement needed in the foundations of many athletes and that started with addressing the main pillars of human and athletic movement.

From there, Gerry walks Zach through a breakdown of how he builds the main movement patterns and why they are so pivotal in not only general movement, but key to athlete's in building increased strength, speed and athletic ability in their respective sports.

The conversation then turns to arm care and the need to look at taking care of throwing athlete's and their arms from more than just the perspective of isolating the arm and shoulder. Arm care is addressed with a proper and comprehensive program focused on building clean movement patterns and overall strength, and the two also discuss the role of anterior core strength and anti-rotational core work in building resilient rotational athletes.

To finish, Zach and Gerry discuss strength and force in the contact of sport, and how Velocity Based Training can be used as a tool to help athlete's improve the amount of overall force they can produce that is conducive to their sport.

All that and more on this episode!

Episode #40 Building Harmony Between Strength and Speed and Everything Strength and Conditioning with Kevin Poppe

10/2/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1801705-episode-40-building-harmony-between-strength-and-speed-and-everything-strength-and-conditioning-with-kevin-poppe

In this episode Gerry talks to strength coach Kevin Poppe of Dynamic Sports Training. Kevin has been in the industry since 2011 and has trained various athletes including professional athletes from the MLB and NFL.

To start, Kevin and Gerry discuss the ever-so-popular topic of being "strong enough," and Kevin explains what it means to him to reach the peak of possible returns when it comes to increasing your overall number on the barbell when lifting. The conversation then turns to the idea of bar speed and moving loads faster, and how it will never be "enough," when it comes to showing force in faster ways. The two then talk about how velocity based training can come into play when looking to improve these characteristics.

From there, both talk all things related to speed. Building force, building the rate in which you can produce it and using plyometrics to build speed. Additionally, Kevin talks about the drop/false step and why it is far more effective than a traditional crossover step when it comes to baseball players running from a traditional baseball start.

To finish up, Gerry comes to the realization that they share similar backgrounds (not attending college to become a strength coach) and the two touch on what they went through/experienced in their journey into the industry and how you can become a coach without a formal education. Lastly, Kevin walks us through some important factors when it comes to in-season training, arm care and team sport conditioning.

All this and more on this episode of Muscles and Management!

Episode #39 Evaluating Prospects and Growing Baseball Through Social Media with Emily Waldon of The Athletic and Baseball America

9/25/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1761661-episode-39-evaluating-prospects-and-growing-baseball-through-social-media-with-emily-waldon-of-the-athletic-and-baseball-america

In this episode Gerry has the chance to talk to Emily Waldon, prospect writer for The Athletic and Baseball America.

Emily and Gerry briefly discuss Emily's journey into the industry and how she had an unconventional start circumventing college. From entering a male dominated industry and being able to get her foot in the door without conventional means, Emily shares her experience and how you need to persevere to pursue your passion.

From there, Emily talks about what she looks for when evaluating prospects at the minor league level and what she looks for to determine who is the real deal and has a shot at making it to the Major League Level. She even tells some fun stories about her time seeing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. make his way through the minor leagues.

To finish up, Emily and Gerry talk about the impact technology has had on scouting, prospects, prospect development and the explosion of social media and the impact that has had. All this and more on this episode!

Episode #38 Building Training Programs and Athletes Through a Principles Based Approach with Daniel Flahie and Cody Hughes

9/18/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1726891-episode-38-building-training-programs-and-athletes-through-a-principles-based-approach-with-daniel-flahie-and-cody-hughes

In this episode Gerry welcomes on two great young strength coaches in Daniel Flahie and Cody Hughes. Daniel and Cody have experience working with more advanced and novice athletes alike, as well as some general population clients that gives them a refreshing and unbiased approach to all areas of programming and training.

The episode starts as the three discuss the importance of looking beyond barbell numbers when it comes to helping an athlete achieve their goals in their respective sport. As coaches who place a great deal of importance on being strong and getting athletes stronger, Gerry guides Daniel and Cody through the things they look for in terms of the transfer of strength training to sport to ensure athletes aren't simply padding one rep max numbers. Is a metric or tested number yielding important results?

From there, the conversation shifts to principle and philosophy based programming and the importance of not grounding your programming in an approach that is married to particular exercises or modalities. There is a time and a place for different types of programming, exercises and strategies and if we understand the main principles guiding programming we can have a better grasp on why they are being used.

To finish, the three talk about sports specific programming and how sport is only activity actually done in games, practice or the field of play. They discuss the methods they use to bridge training transferability to sport and why that is a better approach to training athletes versus trying to bring sports themselves into strength training.

All that and more on this Episode of Muscles and Management!

Episode #37 Q&A: "Balance," Training, In-Season Programming & Life After College Sports (ft. Brandon Deger)

9/11/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1689289-episode-37-q-a-balance-training-in-season-programming-life-after-college-sports-ft-brandon-deger

In this episode Gerry begins by opening the floor to questions in a Q&A style format, taking on various questions from listeners and coaches in topics like balance/stability training and sport transfer, approaching in-season training when making programming decisions, getting your foot in the door in the business side of the training industry and how to best train large teams.

The Q&A addresses what makes a professional athlete have such great stability and control (and how you can too) as well as how to not allow the grind of the in-season dictate training goals for an athlete. Additionally, Gerry discusses some strategies that have helped him develop his business and get a solid foundations to allow for growth, as well as some strategies he uses to deal with the optimal way to train individual athletes who are in a large team setting.

Lastly, Gerry welcomes on his long time friend, former high school baseball teammate and investment banker Brandon Deger on the final portion of the show to talk about how Brandon entered his current career field following a successful baseball and academic career at Washington University in St. Louis. Brandon discusses the importance of networking during and after your playing days to help in your job search and gives advice to younger athletes when it comes to picking the right school to continue sports and education.

All that and more on this episode!

Episode #36 Keys to Developing Strong & Powerful Athletes with DJ Edwards and Bill Miller

9/4/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1647169-episode-36-keys-to-developing-strong-powerful-athletes-with-dj-edwards-and-bill-miller

In this episode Gerry talks to Bill Miller and DJ Edwards, two strength coaches who are at the top of the field in building stronger and more explosive athletes!

To start the conversation, Gerry brings DJ and Bill through their respective backgrounds in the field: education, athletic careers and how they both had completely different starts to get into the industry. Both of which give the listener a good idea of how coaches can get involved and started in the strength and conditioning field.
From there, the three discuss velocity-based training and how it involves far more than moving light loads fast, in addition to talking about different ways you can utilize velocity based training that goes beyond barbell lifting. Lastly, they discuss the importance of measuring loads!

To finish things up, DJ, Bill and Gerry discuss how they use sleds for pressing power and how they apply VBT to these methods, misconceptions regarding arm care and baseball players and the importance of strength to building speed and how you can improve acceleration ability. They also talk the 60-yard dash and why it is a pretty useless and ineffective test for baseball players.

All that and more on this episode!

Episode #35 Applying Principles of Sport Science to Strength and Speed Training with Max Schmarzo (Strong by Science)

8/28/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1612918-episode-35-applying-principles-of-sport-science-to-strength-and-speed-training-with-max-schmarzo-strong-by-science

In this episode Gerry has the pleasure of talking to sport scientist and coach Max Schmarzo. In addition to being a former athletic trainer and strength coach, Max is the Director of Sport Science at Resilience Code and Chief Science Officer of Exsurgo. He also is the man behind "Strong By Science," which is one of the most followed and sought after sources for training information on Instagram with over 100,000 followers around the world. Max is a tremendous resource for sport science and training and helps provide valuable content to athletes and coaches everywhere.

After a brief rundown of Max's background, basketball career, early influences on his strength training philosophies and and journey in starting Strong by Science, Max and Gerry discuss some basic principles of strength training and how we can understand the force velocity curve and assessing athletes and programming to reach maximal effectiveness and validate training methods. The two tackle the "strong enough," debate in terms of training and how strength in the barbell and strength/force in the context of the small windows of sport can differ.

Finally, Max and Gerry talk everything related to building your vertical jump, Max's own vertical program and how to assess what you may need in your training (force vs. speed work). Lastly, Max describes his journey and undertaking with Exsurgo, a company geared towards making cost effective and quality equipment to help measure metrics in training (vertical jump, sprint etc.).

All this and more on this episode of Muscles and Management!

Episode #34 Building Rotational Power & Velocity For Pitchers and Throwers (Rob Hill & Steffan Jones)

8/21/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1580713-episode-34-building-rotational-power-velocity-for-pitchers-and-throwers-rob-hill-steffan-jones

In this episode Gerry talks to two coaches who are experts in the field of building pitchers (Driveline Baseball Manager of Technical Development Rob Hill) and Cricket fast bowlers (Steffan Jones, Global Fast Bowling Expert) and how they use similar philosophies to develop insane rotational power, velocity and overall explosiveness in throwing athletes.

To start, Rob and Steffan share their backgrounds on how they met and how both have found principles of the opposing sport to aid their athletes. They discuss the main similarities between pitching and fast bowling and the ways in which you can develop maximal velocity.

From there, Gerry discusses some strength training principles and how they mesh with the throwing specific work, and Steffan and Rob also divulge how they have utilized strength training to build better throwers.

All that and more on this episode!

Episode #33 Foundations of Blazing Speed with Joseph Potts (Top Speed LLC.)

8/14/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1547758-episode-33-foundations-of-blazing-speed-with-joseph-potts-top-speed-llc

In this episode Gerry welcomes Joseph Potts of Top Speed LLC. to talk all things speed, agility and building blazing fast athletes.

Right off the bat the discussion talks about speed ladders and Joseph and Gerry discuss the many misconceptions some have in terms of how useful speed ladders are. From ground impulse and force displacement, rehearsing patterns and cuing short and choppy strides, the ladder does not provide much when it comes to linear speed AND agility.

From there, the two discuss EVERYTHING related to speed, starting with force development and strength training all the way to rate of force development, velocity based training, elasticity and reactivity and how it all plays in to build speed. Joseph gives his take on his favorite ways to utilize all of those modalities to make his athletes faster and Gerry gives some tips to how you can utilize sleds in your strength and speed training.

To finish up, the conversation discusses the finer points of acceleration and top speed mechanics of the sprint, giving the listener a comprehensive view of what goes into building and maintaining speed as an athlete and coach.

Episode #32 Strength, Speed, Movement and Finding Quality Professionals for Athletes with Stephen Osterer, Terry Phillips and Kyle Rogers

8/7/2019

Link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/238054/1514410-episode-32-strength-speed-movement-and-finding-quality-professionals-for-athletes-with-stephen-osterer-terry-phillips-and-kyle-rogers

In this episode Gerry sits down with the three men behind Baseball Health Professionals, a new venture aimed at connected athletes, parents and coaches with quality professionals in the realms of healthcare, strength training, physical therapy and more!

Dr. Stephen Osterer, Dr. Terry Phillips and Kyle Rogers are three of the best minds in the fields of baseball and sports performance training from multiple vantage points such as chiropractic care, physical therapy and strength and speed training. They give their takes on assessing athletes, how often athletes should be playing their particular sport versus training and tying all these aspects together to build stronger, better moving athletes and baseball players.

Then, the trio discusses Baseball Health Professionals and the inspiration behind their successful attempt at linking quality professionals with those in need of care. From the minds of three very accomplished professionals in the industry, hear all about how they go about working with their clients and athletes and how their insight can help you as well. All this and more on this episode!