In this episode, Eric Helms and Richard Collins explore the art and science of coaching, emphasizing the importance of motivation, rapport, and tailored strategies in achieving long-term success in fitness and bodybuilding. In this episode, Richard shares his extensive experience in physique sport coaching, mental performance training, and how athletes and coaches can optimize their mindset and preparation for peak performance.

Check out Richard's instagram (richard_collinscoach) to stay up to date with his work.

Catch new Iron Culture episodes every Tuesday at 5:30 pm eastern time!

Be sure to use code "MRR10" for 10% off your order at elitefts.com

Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review

massresearchreview.com

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and guest background
01:53 What is coaching and why it matters
04:04 The importance of motivation and internal drive
07:04 Building rapport and trust with clients
10:10 Transition from sports to bodybuilding coaching
14:53 Differences in motivation between athletes and general clients
19:56 Creating internal motivation in clients
25:07 The role of accountability and standards
29:54 The impact of emotional intelligence and relationship building
34:58 Misconceptions about tough love and discipline
40:14 The importance of understanding client context
45:04 Practical strategies for long-term adherence
49:55 Lessons learned from sports coaching
55:09 The value of humility and continuous learning
01:00:12 Closing thoughts and key takeaways

In this episode, Eric Trexler and Eric Helms explore the energetic cost of building human skeletal muscle, discussing recent research, practical implications, and misconceptions about muscle growth and energy expenditure.

Relevant papers:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31482093/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37914977/
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.17.745156v1.full.pdf

Catch new Iron Culture episodes every Tuesday at 5:30 pm eastern time!

Be sure to use code "MRR10" for 10% off your order at elitefts.com

Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review

massresearchreview.com

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:52 Powerlifting shout-out
11:55 Introduction to new paper on energetic cost of building muscle
20:01 Components of muscle tissue building and their energy costs
22:59 Practical implications of the 3500 calorie rule
30:05 The five additive components of muscle growth energy cost
33:49 Variability in individual energy expenditure responses
40:12 Limitations and future directions in research
50:10 Summary and concluding thoughts

Trexler and Helms dig into sleep and how it intersects with body composition and supplementation. They open on the sleep-and-lifting landscape, then work through the frequently cited 2010 study on insufficient sleep and fat loss, laying out its design and the details behind its dramatic-sounding numbers. From there they discuss what the broader literature does and doesn't establish, the acute effects of sleep restriction on power, skill, and pain perception, and observational data — including sleep patterns in hunter-gatherer societies and among elite athletes — plus the relationship between sleep duration and sleep efficiency. The back half turns to supplementation. They trace the history of research on creatine and sleep, from early findings that creatine might reduce sleep need to newer work on brain creatine under sleep deprivation. This leads into a crossover trial testing caffeine and creatine against a sleep-deprivation cognitive challenge, its findings on rugby passing accuracy, and how to interpret an isolated positive result on a little-studied question. They cover a more recent high-dose replication, then close with the practical side — creatine dosing, the common report that creatine disrupts sleep, and caffeine timing — before wrapping up.

Join us for a live recording of Iron Culture! We go live Tuesdays at 5:30 pm eastern time.

Be sure to use code "MRR10" for 10% off your order at elitefts.com

Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review
massresearchreview.com

Chapters
0:00 Intro
9:44 Sleep & body composition
11:16 Unpacking the famous 2010 sleep study
20:52 The blind spot in the sleep literature
23:04 Sleep restriction, power, skill & pain
27:20 Sleep duration vs. sleep efficiency
31:45 The big takeaway on sleep & gains
34:57 Creatine & sleep: the research history
41:22 The caffeine vs. creatine study
44:47 What the study found
54:21 A newer high-dose replication
1:08:26 Practical application: dosing, timing & sleep complaints
1:15:44 Wrap-up

Trexler and Helms dig into Helms's new MASS article, "Are studies on untrained lifters irrelevant to trained lifters?" It's built around a new umbrella review by Andy Fry and colleagues. The recurring internet claim is that most exercise research is done on untrained people, so a trained lifter is "built different" and the findings don't apply. The hosts unpack why that's mostly wrong. They start with the messy problem of defining how "trained" someone is. Then they discuss Fry's review, which reports that roughly 70% of resistance training study participants are sedentary or untrained, with fewer than 500 out of nearly 19,000 participants counting as genuinely well-trained. But the key focus of the episode is that this doesn't invalidate the research: what makes a beginner grow more will also make an advanced lifter grow more — the difference is rate, not mechanism.

Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review. Mostly because Helms and Trex are co-owners.
massresearchreview.com

If you're in the market for some new (ultra-high-quality) gym gear or apparel, be sure to use code "MRR10" for a 10% discount over at elitefts.com

If you'd like to submit a question for a future episode, head over to:
massresearchreview.com/ironculture

Chapters
0:00 Intro
8:25 The article: do untrained studies apply?
11:31 What does "trained" even mean?
22:26 How researchers try to define training status
25:51 Fry's approach & the McKay tiers
28:07 A review of reviews: mapping the literature
32:24 The finding: 70% untrained
37:46 Is that actually a problem?
43:44 Where meta-analyses fall short
51:27 Dose, stimulus & the maintenance threshold
58:27 Realistic rates of progress & goal-setting
1:14:51 Wrap-up: you don't need perfect

In this episode, Eric Helms and Steve Hall explore the nuances of body recomposition, optimal bulking and cutting strategies, and the science behind muscle gain and fat loss. They discuss recent research, practical insights, and debunk common myths to help athletes optimize their training and nutrition.

Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review. Mostly because Helms and Trex are co-owners.
massresearchreview.com

If you're in the market for some new (ultra-high-quality) gym gear or apparel, be sure to use code "MRR10" for a 10% discount over at elitefts.com

If you'd like to submit a question for a future episode, head over to:
massresearchreview.com/ironculture

Chapters
00:00 Audio Troubles and Nostalgia
02:47 Heat and Body Temperature During Massing
05:58 Gaining Weight: Personal Experiences and Insights
09:02 Recomposition: Understanding the Nuances
11:59 Surplus vs. Maintenance: The Anabolic Debate
14:45 The Role of Body Composition in Muscle Gain
18:05 Deficits and Muscle Gain: A Closer Look
20:53 The Impact of Training Experience on Gains
23:50 Psychology of Body Image and Muscle Growth
34:30 Evolution of Perspectives in Bodybuilding
35:30 The Surplus Dilemma: Muscle Gain vs. Fat Gain
39:35 Post-Show Recovery: Finding the Balance
43:43 The Impact of Body Fat on Muscle Growth
46:26 Psychological Aspects of Bodybuilding and Recovery
51:20 Understanding Muscle Memory and Recovery
01:04:31 The Complexity of Body Composition Studies

A methods-focused episode about how muscle and body-composition measurements can mislead you when reading the research. The main event is a new Balshaw and colleagues paper concluding that ultrasound muscle thickness is a poor index of MRI-measured muscle growth. Trexler and Helms argue this shouldn't be read as "throw out all ultrasound research" — the real culprit is that muscle thickness is a crude one-dimensional snapshot with measurement error large enough to swamp the small changes seen in typical short studies, whereas MRI captures growth in more dimensions with better fidelity. They walk through why comparing across different dimensions and different devices matters, what researchers can do about it (bigger doses, larger samples, multiple measurements), and use the famous "sleep restriction kills your gains by 60%" study as an example of over-reading a tiny difference in ten people.

The second half turns to DEXA. Prompted by someone confused that DEXA fat mass didn't line up with the 3,500-calorie rule, they explain DEXA's three-compartment model, why it measures fat mass rather than adipose tissue, and why lean soft tissue readings are so sensitive to hydration. The practical upshot: don't build your worldview on a kilogram of day-to-day DEXA noise, be cautious using DEXA to estimate energy status, and understand that flattening a three-dimensional body into a two-dimensional scan introduces real limits. They close with an extended, tongue-in-cheek bit about trademarking "muscle journey" dimensions.

Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review. Mostly because Helms and Trex are co-owners.
massresearchreview.com

If you're in the market for some new (ultra-high-quality) gym gear or apparel, be sure to use code "MRR10" for a 10% discount over at elitefts.com

If you'd like to submit a question for a future episode, head over to:
massresearchreview.com/ironculture

Chapters
0:00 Intro
5:57 The paper: is ultrasound a poor muscle-growth measure?
18:04 What muscle thickness actually captures
25:38 Measurement error vs. a tiny signal
31:16 Different dimensions, different devices
37:52 What researchers should do about it
39:26 Case study: does sleep loss "kill gains"?
47:28 On to DEXA: where this started
53:26 How DEXA works & why fat mass ≠ adipose tissue
1:02:15 Why methods don't always agree
1:11:06 Water weight & the whooshing scale
1:16:43 Estimating energy status from DEXA
1:19:36 Wrap-up

In today's Q&A episode, the Erics work through a few listener questions. First they tackle upper/lower body imbalance — why lagging body parts usually call for improving training quality before adding volume, and why standout muscle groups can be maintained on surprisingly little work. Next is a long discussion on managing fatigue and exercise sequencing in high-frequency, non-traditional splits, including why the "48 hours between muscle groups" rule is more dogma than requirement and how to think about fatigue as continuous rather than categorical. The episode closes with a multifaceted question on REDs (relative energy deficiency in sport) — what it is, its warning signs, and the limits of what bloodwork can actually tell you.

Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review. Mostly because Helms and Trex are co-owners.
massresearchreview.com

If you're in the market for some new (ultra-high-quality) gym gear or apparel, be sure to use code "MRR10" for a 10% discount over at elitefts.com

If you'd like to submit a question for a future episode, head over to:
massresearchreview.com/ironculture

Chapters
0:00 Intro
4:25 Fixing upper/lower body imbalance
6:39 Quality before quantity
9:03 Why standout muscles hold with less work
12:25 Fatigue & sequencing high-frequency training
17:58 How to actually sequence back-to-back days
23:56 Lifting "rules" set in concrete
26:09 Are lifters too worried about fatigue?
39:34 REDs (relative energy deficiency in sport)
40:51 Liver enzymes, creatinine & training stress
46:07 Cholesterol/LDL & other markers
1:00:21 Wrap-up

The Erics sit down with bone health expert Dr. Lora Giangregorio, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Waterloo, to unpack what's actually known about how bone adapts to resistance training. The conversation covers why bone changes so slowly, the many sources of measurement error in DEXA scans, and why so much of the exercise-and-bone literature is underpowered and hard to interpret. Dr. G makes a central practical case: for building bone, the message shouldn't be "lift heavy" but rather "work hard." Emphasizing high effort over intimidating absolute loads lowers the barrier to entry, especially for older and osteoporotic populations, while still driving progressive overload. She argues the best current bet is combining moderate-to-high-intensity resistance training with impact work, introduced gradually on a foundation of strength. Along the way she debunks popular but weakly supported interventions, including weighted vests and whole-body vibration platforms, and discusses the difference between biological aging and simple chronic inactivity in bone loss.

Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review. Mostly because Helms and Trex are co-owners.
massresearchreview.com

If you're in the market for some new (ultra-high-quality) gym gear or apparel, be sure to use code "MRR10" for a 10% discount over at elitefts.com

If you'd like to submit a question for a future episode, head over to:
massresearchreview.com/ironculture

Chapters
0:00 Intro
4:13 Meet Dr. Lora Giangregorio
7:44 Why bone adapts so slowly
11:42 DEXA error & why to be skeptical
23:07 Does load matter?
33:58 "Heavy" vs "hard" & barrier to entry
42:42 What is impact training?
47:31 The science communication problem
52:55 The weighted vest myth
58:13 Muscle pull, compression & light loads
1:06:48 Do vibration platforms work?
1:09:54 Aging vs. inactivity
1:15:46 Drugs & HRT for bone
1:20:24 How the medications work
1:24:27 Wrap-up & where to find Dr. G