Weightlifting is a hard sport. Sports are hard.
We're willingly subjecting ourselves to discomfort.
Instead of looking at things as a distraction,
specifically music, look at it as the long -term
investment of that athlete. Weightlifting is
a sport of attrition. People drop out left and
right because it's hard. Giving the athletes
that outlet to dance, have fun, bond with each
other is going to create more buy -in to you
as a coach, which will then keep that athlete
in the sport longer, which will then make them
better at the sport. Hi, Dr. Mike. First of all,
congratulations on your PhD. Huge achievement.
And welcome to Evidence Strong Show for the third
time. You're a second person who achieved that
prominent goal. Super happy to have you. We're
talking music and performance. But before we
go there, please briefly introduce yourself.
Yeah, so thanks for having me on again. Pleasure
to be here as always. the short story here. Right
out of high school, I joined the military. I
became a paramedic after that. That got me into
exercise science, where I started my coaching
journey in college sports, where I got introduced
to the weightlifting movements. Before that,
I was powerlifting. Then I started really diving
into the weightlifting movements to snatch a
clean and jerk. Honestly, just really fell in
love with that. Got my USA weightlifting level
one, eventually got my level two, and I started
continued coaching high school, college, mostly
straight into conditioning and athletics, but
shifted into or coaching weightlifting as well.
And then I shifted into the military setting
up until the beginning of the year. So strength
and conditioning is my passion. Weightlifting
is my passion. I mean, I just, you know, any
way we can get back to the field and get back
to the athletes is what I'm here to do. Honestly,
not a whole lot has changed since the last time
we talked, so. No, no, wait a minute. You started
a podcast. So let's talk briefly about that too.
Oh, yes. Wow, it has been that long, hasn't it?
Yeah. So I do have a YouTube channel now, Mike's
Garage Gym. That's also the home of my podcast.
Strength Coach Thoughts, where I kind of just
give my unhinged opinion on popular topics and
strength conditioning. By popular, I mean topics
that coaches like to argue about, and then I
just give my perspective on it. I try to keep
it as academic and researched as possible, but
some of the topics just don't have that. But
yeah, I started the podcast up. I started my
YouTube channel up, which is just, you know,
my training videos. So snatch, clean and jerk,
squat, accessory day, stuff like that. So I've
had that going since January. So, and that's
getting some traction. So that's exciting. All
right. Now, why music and performance? So I do
remember, you know, by the time I started with
the military, I was about eight -ish years into
strength and conditioning. And I've worked with
a lot of coaches that would tell me, you know,
we need to earn the right to listen to music
or we're going to take music as punishment and
different attitudes around music like that. And
I always intuitively thought, I'm like, when
I work out, music, like I know if there's music
and no music, I'm going to live better with music
than without. And at the time, I was writing
a lot. lot of like newsletter articles and just
educational material to give out to coaches and
people I worked with. And I thought about it
and I was like, well, I have this coach that's
like anti -music, music's a distraction, it's
in the way. And I was trying to talk to him and
I was trying to find research articles on it
and I couldn't find anything. There wasn't any
research into music's effect on non -endurance
sports. Let's say it that way. Endurance activities,
there's a ton of research. As far as athletics
or weight room environment, there just hasn't
hasn't been anything. So when it came time to
select my topic, I realized that music was something
that I could easily assess across a wider variety
of people in a mass way. I could mass communicate
it out. It was kind of checking all the boxes
that I needed. And I mean, every time I've mentioned
it to somebody, they're like, well, yeah, music
helps. I'm like, right. But in academia, just
that gut feeling doesn't carry any weight. So
we can sit here and say, yeah, we know it helps,
but we actually don't until the research is done.
So I think there were maybe one, there was maybe
one study I found that. There was one study I
found that took a five rep max bench press and
took them reps to failure with or without music.
And they just found that the group with music
was able to get more reps than the group without
music. And I'm like, that's awesome. But what
else? And that's the what else is where it hasn't
been researched at all. So kind of a get back
at all the coaches that are like, you know, we're
going to take music away because you have to
earn it back. And I'm like, that just doesn't
make sense to me. So I decided to research it.
You are in front of your study. You have to plan
it out. How did you go about designing it? So
because music is very personal, it's very emotionally
driven. So a ton of research into the psychology
of music, the physiology of music and kind of
the social aspect of music. I wanted to try to
see if in a future study is going to be like
if team dynamic plays a role more than the music
does. So is it music providing hype for the team
or is it the music itself providing the benefits?
But we'll get to that. So from that, I decided
to use like art scale questions. on preference,
tempo, volume, basically the hard metrics, right?
That were common through the research. And then
I use just open -ended, you know, explain your
answer questions to try to find themes in the
answers onto if we're seeing this trend with
the Leichhardt questions, is there a qualitative
reason for that trend that we can kind of assume?
But mostly what I was assessing for was did music
help with perceived effort and then the perceived
exertion? So simply put, When music was present,
did the athletes feel like they could do more
with less effort? So did they feel they could
lift more reps, more intensity with reduced feeling
of exertion? With the back end of that for strength
and conditioning being if we can somehow utilize
music, can we get more intensity out of a session
than we typically would have just by using music
smartly? Right. So that was the premise of the
study. Now, who did you invite and how did you
distribute? Luckily, with the opportunities that
I was presented, I was able to utilize a college
softball team. Additionally, I had the collegiate
strength coaches that were working with other
coaches I met around the city that are also in
collegiate setting or tactical setting. The research
question was very simple. It was, does music
affect or does music influence perception of
performance? So that's, to me, the research or
the surveys I got back was a simple yes or no.
I think we had one athlete out of 18 that said,
they didn't say no, but they said they didn't.
say it had a significant impact on them. So 17
out of 18 of them said, yes, it helps. Okay,
but what components of the music were helping
the athletes or perceiving to help the athletes?
So we analyzed the tempo data, the volume data.
We analyzed preference, if a certain preference
or style of music came out more than another.
And then we kind of read through the open -ended
responses and looked for themes among those responses
and kind of categorized them based on what we
were seeing, both for the coaches. and the athlete.
You had 17 athletes. How many coaches? So we
had 18 athletes and 11 coaches. Yes. What have
you found? So both coaches and athletes said
that they prefer music of the coaches and athletes
I surveyed. What significantly stood out was
the music preference was the most statistically
significant factor. Volume played a role in that
but when the if you didn't like the music that
was played no matter what volume it's at it's
it's gonna hinder performance rather than help
with performance so if you basically if you like
the music that's being played you're going to
feel like you can perform better is a lot of
what we found. And that goes both for our perception
of effort. So reducing the perception of effort
and increasing the perception of performance.
So for both of the variables I was assessing,
that was what we found was music you like at
whatever volume seems to elicit the highest performance
gain, reduced perception of effort. Tempo didn't
really have a statistically significant role
at all, which one of the things we discussed
during my defense was because the endurance research
was so heavy on tempo. why tempo didn't really
show an effect with the weight room. And my two
cents on that is we don't really do anything
that music tempo would influence in the weight
room. Cycling, running is all cadence driven
where a tempo can work with that. You can maintain
a certain pace or you can back off of a pace.
You can maintain or back off of a pace based
on the tempo of the music. Where weightlifting,
we don't have anything like that. So I was not
surprised at all to find tempo played almost
no role in the variables I was finding. Volume,
I... thought would play a higher role because
when i'm going for like a max or a pr or something
i'm cranking my volume as loud as i can go so
i i thought that would play more of a role but
as i said it did play a role except it um preference
kind of overshadowed it so i mean our preference
for perceived at effort we had a r value 0 .77
with our p value of 0 .001 the volume was a 0
.9 with a p value of 0 .001 and then for performance
for the perception of performance preference
was r value of 0 .63 and a p value of 0 .005
and the volume was an r value of 0 .61 with the
p value of 0 .001 so volume did was was there
every time but friends overshadowed it each time.
So that was the major findings that we had. Should
you have a separate playlist for max snatch versus
max clean and jerk as a goal? So a lot of lifters
on my team have asked me if I've created like
the perfect weightlifting playlist yet. And I'm
like, no, why would I do that? They're like,
well, your entire doctorate is around music and
performance. I'm like, you know, you think I
would have connected those dots and I haven't.
So, but no, I mean, it goes back to the best
music for performance is music you like. I'm
going to add the caveat in there at the volume.
you like. So what the best snatch and clean and
jerk playlist for me might look very different
than you, very different than somebody else.
So as an athlete, I recommend having a playlist
that you like to go back to, especially for competition,
having something familiar that, and this is,
this is something that I'm going to talk on when
we, if we talk about like how coaches can use
the results here, but having your playlist structured
in a very specific way as well. So if you have
like a PR song or that song that just, when it
comes on and you get the chills and you get that
feeling then you should kind of especially for
competition you should kind of know your warm
-up how long that's going to take you and try
to match your songs up so that when you're going
out for that first attempt let's say second attempt
or whatever you need it to work that song is
coming on now or however you want to use music
for warm -up but Definitely use music for warmup.
That is the takeaway here. But creating a playlist
in a structured way. So not just, I know when
I was a kid, it was a bunch of random songs on
a playlist just because I liked them. But being
more deliberate with your music selection, I
think is going to yield good results. Let's talk
a little bit about coaches. The same rating for
preference and volume. So the coaches both rated
preference of music high and volume high. Now
the coaches questions were more, do you notice
a difference in the athletes? with or without
music. So it's more of that coaching eye. It's
if the music they like is playing, do you see
them perform better or do they seem to perform
better? And then there were questions on their
coaching style of using music for that effect.
So the coaches, all of the coaches rated it very
highly. They said that preference of music and
volume were both, again, the key indicators of
or key responses of their responses. And then
as far as deliberately using music, that's where
it got interesting. Some coaches. answered in
the in the like our questions that they think
music helps improve performance but then when
they were asked to respond to that a lot of them
were like well i just don't really think about
it it's just there so it got i mean i'm not going
to pick apart their responses because their responses
are their responses but that makes me wonder
how much they actually think music helps the
performance then if they don't really think about
it at all we did have coaches too that who outlined
how they like to use music right so they like
to start the warm -up with like kind of like
i'm not saying chill relaxing music So like we're,
we're setting the theme, right? We're like, Hey,
this is what we're picking music. That's going
to be indicative of how the day's going to go.
And that's why they're explaining the workout,
demonstrating any new exercises, whatever. And
then once they turn the athletes loose, they
start doing the warmup. The music might change
and get a little bit louder. And then when it
is warmup is done, we're slinging bars and, you
know, crushing PRS music is cranked. It is going
crazy. Everybody knows like, Hey, it's time to
go. Right. But we've been, he's been building
this. And I mean, this is the coach I work very
closely with. So I've seen him do this. It's
built. Building that energy from the beginning.
It's setting that standard. Hey, here's what
we're going to be. Here's the feeling we're going
to have right now. And it's very subtle. It's
like the music's on in the background. It's like,
oh, they just got done with a session. They turned
it down, right? But it's deliberate. It's there.
It's still there. You can just hear it. And it's
music that people are like, yeah, okay, I kind
of like this. Like, it's music they like. Then
warm -up comes on. It's like, all right, we got
the warm -up or we got the workout explained.
Let's break it down. We get the break. We go
into the warm -up. We turn the music up a little
bit. Just enough to like, okay, we're not talking
as much. still need to hear our count but we
can start going and then when it's all right
hey we got power cleans we got squats we got
whatever's going on we go over and just max that
thing out as much as we can without blowing blowing
speakers up right and then that's when you know
athletes start yelling everybody's having a great
time you know the bars are flying around everybody
slamming stuff like it's a great time and then
as we get into accessories the music might shift
so what i mean by that is with college with the
college athletes we work with it is a lot of
rap r &b hip -hop stuff like that so we might
go from like aggressive heavy hitting rap music
loud in your face to like maybe a little more
like soulful r &b kind of stuff for accessories
we're still keeping the volume up there so we're
still keeping it like hey we need to be moving
but now the vibe is shift a little bit like the
whole energy is shifting then when it gets into
like all right we're done accessories if we're
going into conditioning circuit we're right back
to you know intensity we're shifting it back
to okay hey this is a trigger now we need to
get our minds right and get after conditioning
if it's like more foam rolling recovery like
stretching base, we're going to shift the music
completely and turn the volume back down to kind
of start encouraging that nervous system to start
relaxing a little bit more and indicate that,
hey, we don't need the energy anymore. We need
to start bringing it down so we can get the relaxation
we're looking for. That is that was the most
insightful answer I received from the survey
responses was like, yes, I use it deliberately
as a strategy. Here is the strategy. And I'm
like, awesome. But other coaches, I mean. Other
coaches are like, yes, it's valuable. Yeah, I
think about it, but I think about it as much
as I just tell the athletes to go put something
on. And if it gets too loud, I tell them to turn
it down, but that's about it. So it seems to
be one of those that's like an afterthought,
which again, is I think another reason why, as
I dove more into this topic, it turned into,
that's a really interesting topic because nobody
really thinks about it. It's not like music's
just something that's, yeah, music's always there.
It's like, right, but have you ever worked out
in a gym where it's not? Or it's music that you
absolutely can't stand. So it's not something
in mind until it is, I guess. I think it may
be. Look, what we know from research is music
helps possibly and or very likely. And it is
their preferred music. So going about it in a
way, I have a very busy setup. I have so many
things to worry about. Maybe I have no one to
help. And, you know, 50 athletes in the gym.
I can't be controlling the music. So my approach
is let the athletes choose what they like. If
they're using the power responsibly, I don't
engage with it at all. And I think it's not a
bad approach from your research and the previous
studies you described. This is if you are very
limited on resources and have no capacity, that's
the way to go. Just let them do whatever they
need or want to do. Exactly. If you have capacity
and you have resources and you can actually use
it mindfully then and purposefully, that is another
approach that... one of the study participants
proposed and it seemed working too. You saw it
in action and you think it may be useful too.
So I think it's very useful to offer these two
options to whoever is listening because I don't
know what the environment is. I've been to gyms
where there's no music and how it ends up is
that some athletes will put headphones in and
have their own music going on while everyone
else is. So it may... Maybe also that, that in
general, we have to talk about it. In general,
music plays a role. It's an enhancing role. There
may be people who are more sensitive to it and
absolutely require it. And maybe people who don't
care as much. They are not influenced as much.
What would you say to that? No, I mean, of course,
I think that I definitely think there are people
out there that music may, they just may be indifferent
to it. With the specifically targeting like collegiate
and strength and conditioning with this study,
we're really never going to. have an environment
where they don't have music because that's not
really a culture that most sports programs cultivate.
They want the high energy. They want the yelling.
They want the camaraderie. But to the point of
the headphone, if I'm working with a football
team of, you know, 60, 70 people on roster there,
if they have headphones in, that's now a safety
risk because if I'm giving instruction and they
got headphones in, they can't hear the instruction.
They can't hear other coaches. They can't hear
like, hey, watch out if they're about to hit
into somebody. So I know in my experience with
strength. conditioning headphones are typically
never allowed weightlifting coaching yeah if
they want headphones in as long as it's a volume
that like if i'm talking to them they take it
out or something that's never been a problem
or they just leave one in or something but i
would i would also challenge that if the athletes
that are like i don't need music i could just
do it on my own sure but try it with music and
see what see what happens and i i do there's
there's always a exception to the rule so i'm
sure there is i don't know what number but there's
probably outliers of certain percentage of the
population that just want nothing to do with
music or don't like music or just the, and that
was one of the questions, like I mentioned was,
do you enjoy music while lifting? That was the
first question of surveys. So I didn't get any
no's. So everybody I surveyed does, but I'm sure
if this was blown up into a larger scale, I might
get a few no's that they just like to come in
and do their workout and leave. I mean, I love
the sound of, you know, wooden heels on a platform
and the clack of a bar too. But I mean, if I'm
going for a PR or a heavy, like it's a, it's
a heavy session or a rough session, I'm putting
music in every time. That's just my preference.
So I know a lot of people use it for that effect
to kind of block out. And that was a lot of the
endurance training research was blocking out
the pain, blocking out the fatigue. It's I don't
not focusing on, you know, this is I'm doing
12 singles on the minute of 70 % snatch or something.
I'm focusing on like, hey, I like this song or
I'm singing along with the song or like being
I'm like not in my head with the temp. Like I'm
focusing on everything except this sucks. I don't
want to do this right now or I'm dying in my
hundred degree garage gym. Like, you know, it's
a way to dive. the discomfort that comes along.
And there are people that want that discomfort.
More power to you. But I think it's a time and
place kind of thing. There are days I don't put
music on and I lift. I will fully admit those
are not some of my best lifting days. So, I mean,
the evidence, every time I think about that kind
of stuff, I think about my own personal experience,
which I don't want to relate that to research,
but the days I don't have music are some of my
worst lifting days. The days that I don't feel
like it, I put music on and then all of a sudden,
I'm like, you know what? I could probably do
this. Like, it's just... And that's consistent
with the psychology research. It's a way for
your brain to just change topic, right? Hey,
I don't want to do this. This is going to suck.
This is going to be heavy. You know, the two
wolves in you, the weak one and the strong one,
which one are you going to feed? Music allows
you to feed the strong one and kind of keep the
weak one quiet. And that's consistent with the
research as well. So that's what I would challenge
the one that doesn't need music to just try it
with music and see what happens. Well, I mean,
this, yeah, this is a tool. So you should use
it before you decide it's not. you definitely
and i did notice i know last time we talked i
mentioned how in competition they typically don't
have music i've noticed at least in with usa
weightlifting even some of our bigger series
meets they're just keeping the music on the whole
time which i'm like okay like sweet like i don't
know if they're doing that intentionally or if
they're just not focusing on that but local meets
they're starting to just have music going and
the larger meets the more national meets they're
still just keeping music on so i don't know if
that's for the spectators if that's for the lifters
or what i know the larger you know international
panic there's all that stuff they're not really
it's still very quiet very you know professional
culture but i am noticing intentionally or unintentionally
more music being played at venues for some of
these meets as well too so your preference in
the volume it's played at there's no control
of that unfortunately but i would also argue
that some music could be better than no music
unless well maybe not because competition is
where it does get tricky if you know you're walking
out on the platform and you are focused you're
in the zone and they're just playing something
crazy that could be a detriment too so i don't
know i go back and forth on that i i mentioned
i did come from powerlifting my first powerlifting
meet i ever did the speaker caught fire because
they were blaring it so loud that it just blew
up on them so that's what i came from and then
i came into weightlifting where i would watch
everybody sit there very quietly and you would
hear like maybe a grunt as they lift and then
everybody would clap and the bar would drop and
i'm like where's the energy where's the excitement
we're meeting weights like what are we doing
so i am happy to see that progression to like
At least there's music now, but now it's like,
all right, well, now that I'm further in the
sport, I think I'm coming up on my six years
in the sport. So I should be seeing my best lifts
coming up soon. But so Olympics 2020, no. But
I mean, and that's where now I understand a little
more of the nuance of competition and the mindset
and the flow state. So now I could also see the
other side of like, well, they're playing this,
you know, music I don't like and I'm walking
out and I'm trying to focus, but I have ADD and
all I can focus on is a song I don't like that's
next to me. And now I'm not focused on the, you
know, the bar that I'm trying to lift. So I don't
know. That's a kind of a double -edged sword
that I'm just not realizing I'm falling on. So
yeah, I'm going to stick with no headphones on
the platform because that's a safety risk. and
that's a danger. So I fully support that, but
I don't know. I mean, I did, somebody jokingly
told me like, so as a weightlifter, are you going
to have a walkout song now that you know this?
And I'm like, you're joking, but that's not a
terrible idea. It's a good idea. You registered.
Yeah. When you registered for the meet, you just
put your walkout song. And then every time you
came up like baseball, they played your song.
I mean, Hey, I'm just, I'm just a small guy in
the totem pole, but the listeners on here, there's
some, some high level people. We can get that
rolling. So that was a joke that was kind of
serious. So yeah. In some meets, the music goes
on and then it stops for this time where the
lifter is called. Right. It restarts again after.
And it's like a popular upbeat music, let's say,
in general. So it's unless you really, really
hate the popular music, you should be fine. I
like the idea about a walkout song. I think it
would be very entertaining for the spectators.
Good for the lifter because they can have their
song. And that would be fun because it would
show, you know, the character. It's a very individual
sport. You are on the platform. from by yourself.
And then you have this song to show who you are
and then it all comes together. I think for,
for the audience, that would be awesome for the
lifter. It would be pretty good too. So we said
it. I mean, yeah, it's no secret. I mean, my,
my weightlifting coach is John Nort. So very
high energy, very enthusiastic about lifting.
And I have, I've shifted away from chasing a
maximal number to just going out and putting
on a show, you know, it's for the spectators.
It's a hundred percent for me and personally,
like I want to. hit my best lifts I want to win
but if I just walk out hit my lift and then walk
off stage like this I haven't done anything for
the spectators either so and that's where I know
that's been a discussion in the past like I said
I'm only six years old in the sport roughly so
I don't know before that but lately I've heard
that discussion in the past couple years of like
how do we make weightlifting more spectator friendly
and that is where something like I'm not saying
go Savannah Bananas the baseball team and they're
dancing and all that I'm saying that but if you
go out and you have a you know appropriate song
but a good song you feel good you hit your lift
you put on a show a little bit i mean i i'm again
low man on the totem pole but i would be hard
pressed to not believe the sport would grow a
little bit in spectatorship like people would
want to watch people lifting weights having fun
doing that and being entertained by it so that's
my uh two cents here so but yes as far as music
and walkout song and that kind of solves the
problem too we mentioned at the very beginning
about how the warm -up can be chaotic and if
you have a specifically curated playlist it might
not match up cool Your PR song is your walkout
song then. Like that's it. So when you, like
when your name is called and you're walking out
and that song goes on, you get the chills down
your spine. You get the, everything's going.
You're like, this is my song. Everybody's going
to perform better. I mean, I don't have the reason.
I don't have a dad. Everybody's going to perform
better. We all, I think we all feel that. So
yeah, I'm looking forward to see that happen.
So whoever is listening and is in charge, please
make it happen. So what coaches could and should
implement or experiment with on the base of your
study? I think a lot of what we've been. talking
about is intentionally use music in a way that
dictates the flow of what you want. Let the athletes
select their music appropriately if that's something
you care about. I know with my athletes, we're
all of certain age. They've probably heard words
before. I'm not really sensitive to swear words.
I let them play if it's appropriate. I'm like
in my garage or something. If they're in a school,
there's other problems, but let them play music
they like at volumes they like. You'll probably
be surprised at how much more focus we get and
how much more zoning in. and all that. I do want
to emphasize that I think the common theme here
was music is not a distraction. I think a lot
of the older school sport coaches would see like
a song come on and the athletes would be dancing
around and they'd be enjoying the music and they
see that and they're like, you guys are distracted.
And I think what my argument to that was is they're
not distracted. That's their outlet. That's their
way of like expressing, that's their way of having
fun in grueling sports. And weightlifting is
hard. Football camp is hard. Basketball camps,
like sports are hard. So given the athletes that
one moment of, you know, what's a song, two,
three minutes long of just let them have fun
for a second, like that's going to go much further
than just, you know, being uptight, no music.
You guys are distracted by this because now they're
just going to be sitting back like, man, coach
doesn't get it. Like they're distracted by you
being distracted by the music. So I just, I just.
want to put that out there it's not a distraction
it's going to help your athletes and i would
find a way to try to deliberately work it in
if you're warming up or explaining the workout
for that day maybe have something like high energy
but quieter to try to set the tone as they're
warming up maybe bring the volume up depending
on what kind of day you have if it's a max effort
day hey let the athlete put their songs on let
them do it like the focus should be on the athlete's
performance that day if it's more of like a you
know capacity building or just general strength
day whatever we're doing for the workout then
you know, we can have the music louder for more
intense sessions or sections of the workout,
bring that music down for less intense sections,
kind of undulate the music the same way you would
undulate volume, intensity, stuff like that.
So for coaches takeaway, I would just think about
maybe the first step isn't coming up with the
whole plan on how to use music, but just intentionally
being aware of the music. So straight into conditioning
coach, if you're in the weight room, like noticing
the difference, if there's loud music, that's
just like, not the, not, not what the athletes
are buying into and see. seeing what the athletes
are giving you from that, and then letting the
athletes put on and seeing if you see a difference
there. Because from what I've seen with the study,
you're going to notice a performance increase
just letting the athletes put the music on. And
then from there, if you do notice those trends,
you could potentially start creating your plan
from that. So I would just start with awareness
because awareness is going to help yield results.
And then results, you're going to be able to
tailor the results a little better. So then if
administrations or other stuff, other parties
that get involved with that. that may be against
the music, you have a little bit more ammunition
to talk about why music is actually better for
the athlete than not. Sounds good. Do you have
a specific take -home message for the coaches?
As we've kind of talked about, weightlifting
is a hard sport. Sports are hard. We're willingly
subjecting ourselves to discomfort. Instead of
looking at things as a distraction, specifically
music, look at it as the long -term investment
of that athlete. Weightlifting is a sport of
attrition. People drop out left and right because
it's hard. Giving the athletes that outlet to
dance. Dance, have fun, bond with each other
is going to create more buy -in to you as a coach,
which will then keep that athlete in the sport
longer, which will then make them better at the
sport. Sounds good. Now I have you for the third
time. So the senior short question is, what is
one piece of wisdom? It doesn't have to be related
to the study that you could pass on the younger
coaches or less experienced coaches. Yeah, I'm
going to say this the way I tell a lot of my
interns and GAs, and then I'm going to expand
on it. Our job. is to teach people to pick up
heavy circles. That's it. I think we take some
things way too seriously and we miss the athlete.
We miss the person that's behind that athlete
because we're getting caught up in everything
else that's coming at us. So what I mean by that
is we just teach people to pick up heavy circles
like it's not that serious. What I mean by that
is don't miss the person behind. the results
you're looking for. There's still a human being
there. They're still there because they have
their goals and their aspiration. They have their
life. They have life happening to them. So don't
miss the athlete because you're so caught up
in whatever you're caught up in at the time,
right? Just people first. I always tell the interns
this, you can't be a coach without people to
coach. You can't be a leader without people to
lead. So if you are so caught up in the weeds
of things that you're just losing like athletes
because you're not, you're missing them. as a
person, then you're not going to be a coach very
long. So take it seriously, but it's lifting
weights. It's fun. It's meant to be fun. It's
meant to be competitive, but it's meant to be
fun. So don't burn people out and burn athletes
out by missing the person first. That's my biggest
takeaway, no matter what we're talking about.
He's person first, athlete second, weightlifter,
football player, basketball, identity third,
whatever you want to call that. But person, athlete,
whatever. Thank you. And the last question, where
people can find you? and they want to follow
you, see what you're up to. Yeah, so my Instagram
is where I'm the most active. It's CoachMike311,
3 -1 -1. So CoachMike311. I'm on YouTube as Mike's
Garage Gym. That's where my podcast is as well.
I am barely on TikTok now as of this week, as
of Tuesday of this week. And that's also Mike's
Garage Gym, just tied to the YouTube channel.
And then I'm on LinkedIn where I post a lot of
my... LinkedIn is more of my research articles,
dissertations. So all of that is posted. on my
LinkedIn. That's just my name, Michael Richards,
with my alphabet after my name. And that's everywhere
I'm at that I can think of. My email, I can put
that, I can send that to you to put wherever
people are welcome to email or reach out to me
in any of those formats. All right, Mike, thank
you so much for today. It was a pleasure. Yeah,
thanks for having me on again. I look forward
to the next one.