Ben Yanes makes his long-overdue first appearance on the podcast and brings his trademark nuance to assessment, biomechanics, exercise selection, injury narratives, science-based fitness, and what good coaching actually looks like in the real world.
Ben joins me to discuss:
• Why “a vast majority of the assessments you’re doing are a total waste of everyone’s time”
• Why skilled coaches are continuously assessing clients during actual training
• How training itself can function as an assessment
• The relationship between science-based and anti-science fitness communities
• Why the two tribes often rely on each other to create content
• What actually qualifies someone as “science based” or “anti-science based”
• Why nuance rarely performs as well as certainty on social media
• The different camps that emerge around fitness information online
• How people can rewrite the story they tell themselves about lifting
• Common “bro biomechanics” misconceptions
• What Ben means when he says, “Exercises don’t have a purpose, only people have a purpose”
• Why exercise selection needs to begin with the goal of the individual
• Why muscles respond to tension rather than knowing the name of an exercise
• How biomechanics, physics, and subjective experience can coexist
• The panic that sometimes develops around exercises like preacher curls
• Why blaming an exercise for an injury can create misleading narratives
• What Ben means by asking how “f#@kupable” an exercise is
• Why load management and respect for an exercise matter
• Why anterior pelvic tilt is not automatically something that needs to be fixed
• The problems with quick-fix diagnoses and corrective-exercise identities
• How diagnostic labels can influence someone’s perception of their own body
• Why good coaches need to become comfortable operating in uncertainty
• And much more
Follow Ben on Instagram:
@ben_yanes
CHAPTERS
01:32 The Evolution of Fitness Social Media
02:18 Why Most Assessments Are Overrated
05:21 Training Is an Assessment
07:56 Science-Based Versus Anti-Science Fitness
16:07 Why Nuance Loses to Hot Takes
20:01 The Three Fitness Camps
25:21 Stereotypes and Exercise Selection
27:20 Rewriting Your Lifting Story
29:42 Bro-Biomechanics Myths
30:20 Exercises Don’t Have Goals—People Do
33:34 Muscles Respond to Tension
34:47 Where Physics Meets Feel
37:47 The Preacher Curl Panic
38:18 The Trap of Blaming Exercises
41:25 Load Management and Respecting the Exercise
44:39 The Anterior Pelvic Tilt Myth
47:38 Quick Fixes and Coaching Identity
50:31 Diagnosis and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
52:38 Coaching Through Uncertainty
54:59 Final Thoughts and Where to Find Ben
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• Share the episode on social media and tag @andrewcoatesfitness
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