Barbell Shrugged - Talking Depth - NASA (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 14, 2016

Enjoy some behind-the-scenes stories from our experience at NASA and continued discussion from the first episode of Full Depth: How NASA is Building Strength to Get Astronauts to Mars Part 1. P.S. Don’t listen to this podcast until you’ve actually watched the episode! You’ll spoil it for yourself. REIGN SUPREME!-CTP

Ready? You can just go yo real loud. What's up everybody? This is Mike McGoldrick here with Mike McElroy, CTP, Kurt Mulliken, and Alex Macklin. We're here to talk about our brand new show, episode one of Full Depth. If you haven't seen it yet, go check it out. Start again. I wasn't reading.

You wrote it down. I know. Three, two, one. What's up everybody? It's Mike McGoldrick here with Michael McElroy, Kurt Mulliken, Alex Maglin, and CTP. Yo. We're here to talk about episode one of our brand new series,

Full Depth, which just aired on barbellstrug.com. If you haven't checked this out yet, be sure to go watch. This is Talking Depth. Why'd you laugh? What the fuck? That was good. That was fun. It was good.

You just said a word wrong. But I'm going to keep it. I'm going word wrong. But I'm going to keep it. I'm going to keep it. I'm going have very long. Hey everybody, welcome to Talking Depth. Yeah, Talking Depth. Talking Depth. Depth. Talking Depth.

This is episode one of season one. In response to the NASA episode that we just watched. So quick disclaimer, if you haven't watched this yet, make sure you go watch it. Go watch it because it's badass. We're about to, yeah, not only is it badass, but we're about to talk all about it. So spoiler alert, make sure you go check that out first if you don't want to hear what it's about right now and ruin it. Because you just definitely need to watch this first you will ruin it absolutely need to watch this so i took some notes during this because i

was pretty much mind blown coming from a mechanical engineering background um and being on the moon buggy team when i was in college the moon buggy. So the Moon Buggy is basically a four-wheeled bike that you and a crew of other engineers get together and you build this device that is supposed to be able to ride like a cycle. It's a four-wheeled cycle that you ride over any terrain that you can. And it's a team, and you go to Huntsville once a year, and you race against other colleges. And they have a big track set up. NASA's in Huntsville once a year and you race against other colleges. And they have a big track set up.

NASA's in Huntsville, right? Do they have a thing in Huntsville? They do, yeah. It's like the space center for youth and activities and stuff. So this was... Macro is over here like, what the... You didn't know that?

Oh man, yeah. So you were on the moon buggy team. So I'm on the moon buggy team so i'm on the moon buggy team so i've got a special this is close to home this is this is i have a special place in my heart for this episode um so obviously you want to give a shout out to your boys on the team johnny kyle mooney ham i'm thinking about you guys right now actually true story too uh first couple of minutes in one race actually the first, 10 feet in one race one time. The first 10 feet, a wheel fell off the bike, and we didn't finish. So good thing I'm not on the NASA team.

Good thing you're not on the NASA team. Otherwise, you'd be. Did you take anything from this episode that maybe if you went back to your moon buggy? Anyways, the whole point of this bringing it up was obviously being in fitness now and coming from an engineering background. It is, I have so much respect for the strength conditioning experts that work at NASA and the engineers

that come up with some of these issues they have to deal with. So not only are you trying to solve problems like, so you got to get these guys to exercise so they don't fall apart in space, but you've got to make it, the device that they're using,

it's got to be lightweight. It's got to be effective. It's got to be safe. It's got to be lightweight. It's got to be effective. It's got to be safe. It's got to be safe. It's got to be safe for them and the craft. I mean, there is just so much. The program design that you're doing has to be as efficient as possible. They don't need to do a single more rep than they have to

to conserve as much as possible. When they're talking about things like not sweating so it doesn't get condensation on the equipment. Right, I mean right or shifting the velocity or shifting the angle one degree well yeah well here's the thing too i mean they have to consider all that into account you know because uh you know when a person trains they're generating heat they're generating sweat moisture and they're in an environment which you know any kind of malfunction will will be basically life or death.

And, you know, what he was talking about on the show is that when they're moving, you know, the whole craft can vibrate. And in space, and I'm going to give you a little physics lesson if you don't understand this, but, like, typically in space there's no such thing as there's no friction. Okay. So when you, when you apply a force in any direction in space, it's going to continue your, the craft or whatever you apply that force to is going to continue moving at, at that acceleration, uh, at that velocity for as long as, as long as it hits something until something else changes it. So, so in space, if if you if you have um

you know vibrations or the craft moves then you're going to throw it off course and so having to account for that is just is just insane and i and when mike was like i never even thought about that i didn't even think about that either right yeah i mean when they talk about or we think about you know design and programs and stuff like we're still theoretically doing things yeah and if like we make a little mistake it's like not a big deal we adjust but like i'm talking about they're planning for like two years to think of every single mistake that possibly could happen how can we prevent that yeah like you said it's life or death well what was so what was very fascinating too is about this whole situation is that you know they're in space and um they're not in constant

communication. There are times where they're, they are not in, you know, communication and it takes, you know, a few seconds or a few minutes even for, you know, to get, get feedback and, you know, they're not, and they have to download the videos. And so like, like you said, it was a week, a week delay. So like, I mean, think about that the time, next time if you're remote coach somebody and then you have to – you get feedback a week later on something you're already doing. So, you know, they have to always think ahead and plan ahead. And that takes an incredible amount of, one, knowing that athlete. So, I think, like, one of the things that I took away from this is that they spent several years with this one athlete just, you know, understanding how they work and how they perform. And then they prescribe exactly.

I mean, you're talking about individualized training there. That is some individualized training. And the other cool part was that most of these guys didn't come from a training background, he said. No, they're just like 40 years old. In their 40s, they just started picking it up didn't i don't know if we ever asked but i i'm just sure that that's because they're doing learning all sorts of other shit it just isn't even training yeah you got to be a smart dude well like you said these guys aren't athletes they come in as wanting to be you know astronauts and stuff and they so they want to learn that side of things they're not coming

training is just like one little slip of everything the guys that beat me in the moon buggy race. Yeah. Those dudes. I mean, even consider, too, how foolproof the equipment has to be. Right. So, you know, if you're that dude who gets to put a clip on the bar and the bar weight slides off, you're not coming home. Like, everything has to be very simple, extremely effective, very foolproof.

One thing I think is very important to note, like, you know, when you watch this episode, you know, you always have to keep in mind, like, well, why are they even training in space? And the main important reason, and they talked about a lot on the show, is that so in space, you're in a zero G environment. OK, you don't have the normal stress. We take that for granted, just being on the earth, like, having gravity but in space there's no gravity that is what keeps your muscles like basically ready to like basically at their tone to to support your own weight okay support your own mass rather standing up density as well density yeah so like you know there there's there's a law i can't i can't remember off the top of my head. I mean, I learned this in engineering way back when. But basically, if you don't load a bone, if you don't load it enough, it will lose its density.

It will lose its mass and its density, and it will get weaker. So you have to load a bone for it to maintain its density. Otherwise, your body will just basically, during the remodeling process of bone, it will take away bone. Yeah, that's one of the interesting things that he said is, he said weightlifters have like seven times the bone density of normal. Because they load the bones. He said they've gotten it down to where they're only losing about half the bone density they used to be. Right. Which means they were losing a bunch of bone density at at first and now they've gotten it up a little bit

but they're still working on that was it one percent one percent loss per month per month which is a lot that is that is that is a lot of bone loss and it is crazy and the thing and the thing is too is like that that just that that kind of resonated with me is because, you know, people, you know, training, like what Chris was saying on the show, if it's important up there, it's damn important here too. You know, training is not just about, like, you know, trying to, like, perform and do wads and stuff. But this is health. This is function. So, like, you know, lifting weights and doing this stuff, like, this is what's going to keep you you know especially older these guys are older too like these guys are like 45 50 years old that's the type of stuff that's going to keep you from like landing in the the nursing home like

when you're older because you know you're not you're not uh training and you're not if you're not training you're not uh strengthening your bones up well going back to bone density real quick did y'all pick up that he was saying that uh the machine that they were showing us um they're basically hoping that over time especially once they start trying to go to overtime once they start going to mars which they're already in planning to do is he wants to get that machine so that it can uh have velocity so that one of the biggest things they want to do is clean and or not the jerk part but he wants to be able to do cleans so that they can maintain that full hip extension yeah full hip extension yeah interesting one of the main things i thought too was interesting is that they weren't just about maintaining strength um but

balance was the biggest thing when they come back they don't have that balance because like you said just the simple act of standing up all day long here on earth is what helps keep our muscle tone when they're in the zero G environment. They don't have that. Yeah, they have no sense of balance. They lose that balance completely.

People fall over in the equilibrium and everything. And most of the development too, he said, obviously it's below our waist because our legs are what help us walk around and stay in balance.

And then I thought it was cool how he talked about how actually, you know, most of the muscle loss is in bone density losses from the hips. Where up in space sometimes, he said they've actually had some people that have developed their upper body strength. Mainly because the arms become the legs when you're in space. You're pulling with everything. You're pushing. You're moving around with the upper body. That was pretty cool. Yeah. Maybe I should just start using my arms more in the day You're pulling with everything. You're pushing. You're moving around with the upper body. That was pretty cool. Yeah.

Maybe I should just start using my arms more in the day-to-day stuff. Just have a bunch of hooks everywhere and climb around the house. That'd be super cool. Yeah, I agree. Also interesting was he talks about when, you know, if they need to come home for an emergency, it takes about six days, I think, was like, I don't remember how many hours that was. But you basically, like like don't eat. It's almost like a fasted state.

They have enough water to kind of survive through that when they come home. And it got me thinking like imagine training for this stuff, right? So like imagine how resilient your body has to be leading up to that. I imagine they do trials and test runs on that kind of thing. Like we're going to do a fasted emergency landing trial. Yeah, I mean like so we're over here like, oh, my God, I cut some carbs down. You know, like, these dudes, I mean, obviously they do it because it's survival and this is something they really want to do.

But, like, that's the kind of training that, like, I think is more brutal. Like, the lifting weights and stuff and the robo-cork, come on, I think that's easy relative to, like, the stretch you've got to put your body through when it comes to being resilient to surviving a trip home. Yeah, the mental side of it. Well, the mental side of just being in that tiny craft. I mean, the toilet was right next to the theoretical exercise device that they were going to use on that one craft. So just having to think about every single inch of space and keep it so small.

I mean, it's a stressful situation. You're basically strapped to a chair. You can't move. You're using your arms. Your feet are tied to the floor. Right. And there's a guy exercising like two inches from you. Yeah, so that was like we were talking about.

So your feet aren't holding you up. Your feet are actually strapped down when you're doing a lot of the stuff you're working on using your hands your feet are strapped down so actually kind of holding the opposite of what we're used to holding we're holding ourselves down to the ground as opposed to holding ourselves up right on the ground have you ever rode on uh have you ever rode in an actual boat like not on a stationary erg but like in a boat or on like the the ergs that have the slides that's kind of what it reminded me of so if you've ever been on the slides like not only do you return into the catch but when you pull your feet in the rower pulls towards you so it's like it's a shorter return which is almost

how they were describing the squat when you saw them in space like the platform and the bar came closer together much faster that that was pretty interesting so uh yeah another thing that's when you watch that it's funny because charlotte fucking crushed that uh edit so she spent a long time making that and i just remember i watched it before all you guys did just be like god dang that's fucking i was freaking mind blown yeah this was crushed this was some high quality and you got to keep in mind what she did right here for anybody who's not into video editing or anything like that, like,

it's just one person. What we did here, this show, and specifically with her editing, what she did was like normally a team of at least five people

would be doing this and this is just one person locked in a room for days just crushing. Well, I mean, honestly, we started watching and I felt like I was watching a documentary special. Yeah, I mean, honestly, we started watching and I felt like I was watching

a documentary special. I mean, obviously it is. I got to apologize real quick for my camera work there. A couple times you fell asleep. I was like, why is he filming that dude's sunglasses? Well, I can explain that

in another way, but... They were cool sunglasses. Man, that was a full day for us. We woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning, and then we probably didn't get home until 7, 8, or 9. What time did we show back up in Houston? It was like 9 o'clock.

9 o'clock? Dude, I'm telling you. It was the day after the summit. So Charlotte, the girl who edited it, she was supposed to meet us in Houston, and she's from London. She ended up getting to Houston and then got, not deported,

but sent back. What would you say, Alex? Yeah, I guess. Yeah, sent back. Sent back. They didn't let her in is the point. They said,

sorry, U.S. is closed. We weren't planning on that. So we were planning on this whole show being a two-camera shoot and the cameras we have are, how much do you think they weigh?

I've let you guys hold it. How much do you think that was? I don't know. 25 pounds. 45 pounds. 45 pounds. 35 pounds. But it's pretty heavy, and I'm just, you know, and I was anticipating a two-camera shoot,

which means I can get lazy for a while and give her, you know, like, hey, the nod. Like, okay, now you're going. And then it was just like, oh, shit, I've got to do this by myself. And it was all day. From the moment we walked into the place where we got our badges, cameras were on, until we left. I got an hour lunch break and my arm was just dying so i'm looking at the footage i'm like oh and this was only half of the show too so

it's like there's there's another there's another part after this but anyway yeah she crushed that edit what do y'all think of the show since this is my first time doing it we talked about that the next level of dude this is some hot this is some serious shit man mind-blowing shit i was i was like am i watching something on Discovery Channel? Kurt Mulliken on the mic now? Yeah, I feel like seeing it early, it was like this opportunity. I was just kind of in awe of being able to see it early and watch it and absorb. I was like a little kid.

I mean, I love the insight we get on this because, I mean, strength conditioning, it's very important to all of us here on Earth. But a lot of us are doing it for our own special purpose right like for training or just recreation and fun but like seeing someone that these guys had to apply it to keep someone alive they have to do it to live yeah like yeah I mean like I said it's still used that way here but right like to get these guys home and safe so they can function again once they return on earth is like that's really fascinating to me. And you guys really captured that. You guys freaking crushed it.

And I know you were tired and sleepy and you talked about losing control of the camera. But that kind of shit, I didn't even notice. I was really drawn in. That's good. I mean, that puts a whole new perspective on, you know, the priority of training. Get your shit together, strength coaches. Here we go. Like, they you have,

they literally have to train to function and that, and that's, that's just, that blows my mind. How cool was Yamil and Bruce, right?

Those dudes were the fucking shit. Which, which one was Bruce? Bruce is the, the orange, the trainer in the orange shirt. Okay. He's my new favorite.

Yeah. That guy was awesome. He's the shit. Yeah. Yeah. Get that guy. Yeah. He was like,

man, we squat every day. I'm like, hell yeah. every day is arm day every day is arm day every day is squat day and deadlift no twerking though yeah no twerking what do you guys think of like what do you guys think of all that like i mean it's a instance and their their programming has got to be a little bit different you know than somebody down Yeah, I was kind of thinking that as he was going over it. Like, if he had somebody here, first of all, preparing them for it, so that would be down here on Earth. And then, two, if he was training someone outside of going for NASA,

would he kind of have the same principles for that? Because he was talking about his, you know, squat every day, deadlift every day. And then going to, like, max intensity. He was talking about a different squat every day and a different deadlift every day. then going to like different varieties like max intensity something out of different squat every day and a different deadlift every day a lot of variation but still squatting and pulling every day it's a really interesting concept and it's not something that's used here very often right i know our buddy cory gregory is gonna watch this be like told your bitches well you know what it is is just because like he was saying it's it's so that they can trick the body because i mean in that zero g you know everything is out the window you need a lot of variation you are not

using your body like it was designed to make we were not ever meant to be in space so you have to just completely everything goes out the window well imagine too like if you went to your elliptical every day and you only had three programs to do, yeah, I know you're going to do them because you have to, but it's torture at that point. If you have to do the same thing every single day. And he definitely talked about that. That was the other thing, though, talking about programming on elliptical,

how they had every single workout programmed in for them, and then once they did the workout, it was automatically data was collected. You can't cheat. It'd be cool if you could log in and it's like log in guys email from doug larson day 23 is shredded yeah you're like oh yeah you're trying to work out for the i also think you know and and this episode i feel like it has a lot of like you know takeaways for practical like even here on earth like they were stressing full range of motion like a lot of this stuff like that's

why i like that guy yeah you've got like full range of motion is is very important so like you know that's that's something that people in in down here and in your own training like you gotta remember that too you know yeah yeah he was i'm a big fan oh yeah and and part two's coming i've seen part two and i i can't wait to watch i'm not gonna lie i teared up when i saw it oh man i can't wait to watch it. I'm not going to lie. I teared up when I saw it. Oh, man, I can't freaking believe it. You know, because I feel like it's just something special. I feel like we've got to – can I tell the story of why we even got here? I think I've told you guys. I want to tell it to the fans. It's a good story.

I thought this was kind of funny. It's a funny story. So the whole reason we even met Yamil and the strength and conditioning team at NASA is because sometime last year I posted an article on the barbellstruck.com. Yeah, I wrote it. Alex wrote it. Oh, yeah. Alex wrote it, and I titled it when I posted it.

And what was the article about, Alex? It was about weightlifting or like – Metcons won't make you better. Yeah, like – Metcons won't make you better. Conditioning. Doing only – the Olympic lifts and Metcons will not make you better at the Olympic lifts was the point of the article. So I titled it NASA Confirms, colon, Metcons will not make you better weightlifter.

And it was total just for fun, just to laugh. And the article was pretty popular, right? Yeah, yeah. And so we at Barbell Strugged have a strict don't respond to troll policy that we try to stick to. I wouldn't say it's that strict. Man, it's hard. It's hard. I think we do a damn good job. But anyway, so some guy comes on.

He's like, I've been following this. This was last year. We've been podcasting now for four years. And he goes, I've been following this was last year we've been podcasting now for four years and he goes I've been following this show for a long time and I just

with a title like this it's just clickbait clickbait bullshit I just can't be a part of this show anymore what do you think it was the National Enquirer or something

well first of all the article it starts the paragraph starts with well of course NASA didn't say that but dot dot dot so you know

we weren't trying to really trick anybody, but so he, he said, I saw it, but I didn't respond. I held my tongue. I'd say like two days later or something like that. We get an email from NASA.

That's like, Hey, big fans of the show, read the article. Great article. I was like, so I had to go back on. I had to go back on there and be like,

respond to be like, uh, PS, uh nasa loved it shut your mouth but but because because that article because just randomly one day i decided to title it that nasa sent the email reached out to us then when we were traveling to houston we hit him up you know what's going on that's awesome we'll have you gave us the full tour so sometimes i've. So sometimes being ridiculous helps. Big thanks to those guys. Hell yeah. Man, that was awesome. I can't wait for part two.

Can't wait. Stay tuned. We'll be back for more. Peace.