Iron Culture presented by MASS
Iron Culture was started by Eric Helms and Omar Isuf as a means of exploring the world of physical culture and attempting to distill a unified philosophy of lifting and to help listeners find greater meaning from the iron. It's now hosted by Eric Helms and Eric Trexler, who repeatedly beg Omar to return as a guest.
Iron Culture focuses on dispensing practical, useful information to the listener, bouncing from history, to philosophy, to contemporary lifting culture issues, to science. The format includes casual conversations between the two hosts on a variety of topics, discussions with a panel of experts and interviews with authoritative figures in the lifting community.
Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 93 minutes
- Episodes
- 347
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2025
Ep. 185 - Bodybuilding Peaking Controversy: Is Water Wet?
“Evidence-based” bodybuilding peaking is somewhat of a misnomer, at least for all aspects of peaking at this stage of the game. Being able to construct a hypothesis based on physiology, is not the sa…
Ep. 184 - Breaking A World Record After A Catastrophic Injury (ft. Joe Sullivan)
Joe Sullivan has been powerlifting for more than half his life. Starting as a young teen, Joe has been in and amongst the culture, starting with the USAPL, and eventually migrating to the untested si…
Ep. 183 - Overcoming Adversity & Building Resilience
What is the difference between a lifter who takes a hit, and keeps on lifting and the lifter who “used to bench 315 in high school?” Is it always that the former is harder working, more resilient, mo…
Ep. 182 - How to call out B.S. and Pseudoscience
Myth busting is a favorite past time of the “evidence based fitness community”, and pwning noobs with copious “um actually”s is just part of the job, right? Well, yes and no. While it’s more importan…
Ep. 181- Is Natural Bodybuilding Dead? (Q&A)
What started out as a Q&A episode quickly evolved into an in-depth conversation surrounding the future of natural bodybuilding. To some inside the space, there are alarming signs of stagnation within…
Ep. 180 - Cultural Shifts in Lifting
The lifting community is more siloed than it used to be, and it is larger, so it’s understandable why today we have a broad and varied cultural landscape. It’s also more complex now in the modern age…
Ep. 179 - The Dangers of Being Shredded (& Why It’s Almost Impossible To Sustain)
Getting really really lean is something a lot of people do, from physique athletes to fitness models, to serious lifters with a lifting-related bucket list. But staying really really lean, is somethi…
Ep. 178 - In Search of Supplements: An Examination
Examine is arguably one of the most important resources to the supplement consumer in existence. Haven’t heard of it? Imagine a third-party, expert-informed, wiki page on human research on nearly eve…
Ep. 177 - Jessica Buettner: 2x IPF World Champion Powerlifter
We are joined by the reigning 76kg world champion and now the strongest deadlifter on the women's side of the IPF, fresh after returning from the 2022 IPF worlds in South Africa. Jessica came away wi…
Ep. 176 - Turkesterone Controversy, Powerlifting World Records & The Ivory Tower
Sometimes you just gotta shoot the s**t and talk some s**t. In this episode of Iron Culture, we discuss some of the recent insane competitions in the world of powerlifting. If you live under a bridge…
Ep. 175 - Training Burnout & Rekindling Motivation
Motivation is for the weak, commitment is for the REAL lifers! Right! Right? Well maybe not so much. Join us on an existential journey into what motivation really means. What are our motives to train…
Ep. 174 - Periodization for Hypertrophy: An Overview
In this Q&A episode, we address a few great questions, the first of which, on how does periodization for hypertrophy works, resulted in a deep dive by Mr. Dr. Eric Helms on the topic. You’ll learn ab…
Ep. 173 - What Is The Best Training Environment?
Your training environment, it’s a variable we all acknowledge as being relevant and important, but it’s rarely discussed in depth. In this episode, we give this topic the attention it deserves. What …
Ep. 172 - All About Saturated Fat & Cholesterol
Saturated fat, it gets a lot of attention, but there’s not much consensus in this attention…at least in influencer conversations. However, the research on the health impacts of saturated fat are reas…
Ep. 171 - Jesus Olivares: a New Era in Powerlifting
Ep. 170 - Training Twice A Day
Training, it’s the most fun thing we all do in our mundane lives, and we’re ok with that! But unfortunately, it’s only about 4-8 hours of the week and typically not every day. So, what’s an easy way …
Ep. 169 - Lagging Body Parts, Body Recomp & Minimalist Training (Q&A)
We’re back with another Q&A episode, with just one trendy commercial break. That’s right, we had to shill the 5-year MASS anniversary sale going on until May 3rd because let’s face it, no corporation…
Ep. 168 - Movement Screens & Modalities Roundtable (feat Nick Licameli, Jared Maynard & John Flagg)
The world of rehab is full of assessments and treatments. Some are legitimate, others less so, but the confusing part is that some of these assessments have a logical basis, connecting movement to fu…
Ep. 167 - The Resurrection of A Powerlifter (ft. Mike Tuchscherer)
Mike Tuchscherer has been on Iron Culture multiple times to speak as a thinker and coach, but this time we brought him on as an athlete. For those who don’t know, Mike has been competing since 2003 a…
Ep. 166 - The Death of Powerlifting
Powerlifting has exploded in popularity over the last decade within the lifting community. From deadlifts being frowned upon at commercial gyms to your favourite fitness influencer now entering a loc…