In Episode 226 of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, Connor Agnew talks with Dr. Justin Lima, PhD, a high-performance consultant and the owner of Strength Coach Network. Justin shares his coaching journey across top conferences including the B1G, ACC, Ivy League, and CAA, and highlights how Strength Coach Network delivers practical education and networking that coaches rarely get in traditional classrooms.
The conversation dives into the value of lived experience, time management for productivity, honesty in coaching, and the ethical challenges surrounding product promotion in the industry. Justin also explains how spirituality and personal growth shape his coaching philosophy and why building strong relationships remains the most important key to career advancement.
Key Takeaways
Real education in strength coaching is often found outside classrooms.
Strength Coach Network provides practical, coach-led education and career tools.
Coaches should prioritize their own physical fitness to lead by example.
Time management and intentionality improve both coaching and personal life.
Candor and honesty strengthen coaching practices.
Spiritual foundations provide resilience in personal and professional challenges.
Ethical challenges exist around product promotion in the industry.
Relationships are central to long-term coaching success.
Strength Coach Network is a resource for CEUs, webinars, and career development.
Quote
“I was mad that the education in Strength Coach Network was better than what I learned in my PhD classes. But it made me a better coach, and that is why I believe in it.” – Dr. Justin Lima
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Justin Lima:
I was mad that the education on this website was better than anything in my master’s degree, my doctoral degree, or any other place that I tried to learn. And I was, I was quite frankly, I was pissed, but then I moved past that within a day or two. And I was like, all right, just start consuming it. Like, this is great. Like learn these things. Alex and the terror run specific ISO, Stefan Jones, motor learning, like just great, real education from real coaches doing the thing. And here was able to create all this information and get it from all these coaches and
and build what he built.
Connor Agnew:
What’s going on Samson Strength Coach Collective listeners? On today’s episode, we have a very special guest. He asked me to refer to him just as Justin. So Justin, thank you so much for coming on. ⁓ And he’s owner of Strength Coach Network. I mean, I’m very excited for this episode because I’ve been following your content for a long time.
Strength Coach Network has been something that’s been around since I came into strength and conditioning and it’s a very valuable resource. And I think you’re a funny guy. So I’m excited to spend some time with you.
Justin Lima:
Thanks, Connor. Appreciate you again, Costa. Shout out to you, Costa, connecting us, brother.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, exactly. Costa in the amount of connections I’ve gotten from Costa is actually out of control. Like I get emails almost every day and I’ve got a phone call with him later today. So I’m sure he’s going to have five more guys for me to connect with soon. He’s a great guy.
Justin Lima:
you
He really is like, and shout out to him because I feel like there needs I said this to him. And I’ll say it publicly, but like there needs to be more people in strength conditioning, but I also said just in life that are willing to like, hustle and work hard regardless, because that was something that we talked about with the kids at Iowa and that I brought with me to Towson and now continue to say is like, if you’re going to be a plumber, electrician, whatever you’re going to be, it’s going to require time and effort to be great. And like, there’s just not enough people that are hungry and willing enough to go and
and do the thing. like, it’s just such a relief to see. He’s younger than me, but for costs like a young guy like that just willing to work and go and do like, it’s, it’s, it’s refreshing to see.
Connor Agnew:
Well, he’s a grinder. And an interesting point that you bring up that makes me think about it is, I remember in these emails where he’s connecting me to other guests that we’ve had on the podcast, he sends a message and it’s a very great detailed description or whatever. And I just kind of assumed that it’d be more of a copy and paste situation where it’s like, all right, let me send these emails out quickly. No, every single one is personalized, detailed and beautifully crafted. And so I agree. It’s very nice to see somebody who…
not only works hard, but also is taking the time to personalize things. And even if the other person wouldn’t know, cause I’m the one who’s seeing all these emails back to back to back. And then you’ve got no clue what he said to Alex who was on the podcast a couple of weeks ago, you know, so ⁓ I appreciate it. And I think it’s a great lesson to learn for everybody. And he also, what I love about him is he’s willing to connect other people and help other people. Cause he knows that I’m, you know, even at the most selfish level, I’m more willing to help him. Yeah. Well,
I’m very excited to dive into this and I really want to talk about Strength Coach Network first, but can you just give us a background of your career and then what led you to leading Strength Coach Network?
Justin Lima:
So let’s start at the beginning. got into strength conditioning in 2009 when I was done playing football. My offensive line coach asked me if I would coach the O line with him because I was an O line. I was a coach on the field. Essentially he owned a gym. He got me bigger, faster, stronger. like that was when I first learned about strength conditioning. Didn’t know that it was a career because I’m from Massachusetts and up in Massachusetts, nobody cares about college sports. Like it was all about pro and
So like this whole notion of like, remember that was 2005 when I graduated high school. like lifting weights kind of wasn’t like what athletes like sure some athletes did it, but it wasn’t what happens nowadays. Anyways, I start working with him in 2009, get my masters in 11. I part of my masters. was at Harvard university that led me to Iowa in a summer of 12, which led me to college park in 2012, 2013, go back to Iowa, work there for five years.
go from Iowa to Towson as the head guy for five and a half years. And it was at my time at Towson that I met Keir and that was through DeMarco, Nick DeMarco at Elon because Nick and I were friends. worked together at Iowa. Elon and William and Mary played each other the week before William and Mary played Towson. And so Nick and Eric Horm and Scott Kuhn all got together with Nick.
And Nick was like, Hey, you know, this is a great conversation. Like you and I know like these closed door behind meetings. This is where real learning happens. He’s like, you guys got to go connect with Lima next week. we had, breakfast together before that William and Mary game. And then Kieran, I just stayed in touch because I had learned about strength coach network from my former assistant, Joe Alexander, who’s now the director at Johns Hopkins. ⁓ he’d be a great guest for you as well. And I just kind of fell in love with the education. I was actually mad.
I was mad that the education on this website was better than anything in my master’s degree, my doctoral degree, or any other place that I tried to learn. And I was, I was quite frankly, I was pissed, but then I moved past that within a day or two. And I was like, all right, just start consuming it. Like, this is great. Like learn these things. Alex and the terror run specific ISO, Stefan Jones, motor learning, like just great, real education from real coaches doing the thing. And here was able to create all this information and get it from all these coaches and
and build what he built. And so we formed a friendship. I finished my dissertation and then I started working for Keir and then it kind of just took off from there.
Connor Agnew:
So you say real education and you say real information. Like what’s you made it different from the work that you saw in your master’s or your PhD?
Justin Lima:
It was actually like, Hey, the textbook says hypertrophy is this strength. need three minutes to four minutes rest when, okay, maybe you have 40 minutes to train a group of athletes. Like you don’t have the ability to actually do that or Hey, this is the logical constraints of working in this weight room and you have to do speed and lift together. But how do you actually get that done and keep the qualities where it’s supposed to be? And that type of conversation doesn’t happen in a classroom.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, you’re right. Like you said, it happens a lot behind closed doors when you meet with other coaches.
Justin Lima:
Correct. And it’s like, sure. Like, yes, you still have to like the said principles, the same thing, but like, because universities stay so high level, and they don’t actually teach anything about like, okay, well, this is the energy systems of this sport of field hockey or lacrosse or American football or rugby. Well, now inside train coach network does a presentation on training field hockey players. And it’s brought to you by somebody that’s literally won an Olympic medal with a football with a field hockey team.
So it’s like, if you want to learn the energy system requirements, what the physical preparation of a field hockey player looks like, you’re literally not going to learn that in the classroom.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, one of my favorite sayings is, you you can never trust a skinny chef, right? And so you want to work with the people who have done these things and had success.
Justin Lima:
right?
Yeah. Or the fact of like, how often are people being taught in a classroom by people that have never actually smelt the air of an elite weight room or being out, you know, on a track and field with some of the fastest people in the world. Yet they’re the ones trying to go teach that when it’s like, that’s so backwards. Like you’ve got these professors professing things, but they’ve never done the thing versus these were strength coaches. Like it was hard to get them to be able to present because you know,
time constraints and like, all right, hey, you have to do this on your side, which is why we pay for coaches to do their webinars inside of strength coach network to respect them for their time. But you’re going to learn from people that have real strain under the bar. Like if you want to learn how to get like all these social media influencers nowadays, but like, if you wanted to lose weight, you just go find a bodybuilder because they know how to look great. What they’re, if you want to get strong, go, you learn from strong men, right? Like all these principles and far too often
95 % of the time, the people teaching these classes in an exercise science, they’ve never actually worked with elite athletes and they they and maybe if they did, it was super long ago, and they haven’t then trained themselves. It’s like, when’s the last time you’ve strained? When’s the last time you’ve been under the bar? Like, it should be a requirement. And I had a conversation with ⁓
buddy of mine, Christian Brown down at Kapailin community college. And he’s like, bro, I have to exercise so that way these guys can buy in. Like if I don’t look a certain way, they’re not going to listen to me. So anybody listening to this, you need to be lifting. That’s why like we put the premium on doing field work too. You need to be out there sprinting like sprint timbers happening right now. You need to be playing a sport, change direction. Too many strength coaches just live in the weight room.
And they live by proliferant chart and then like, well, why doesn’t this athlete understand that they could do nine or excuse me, seven reps at 90%. It’s like, bro, they’re gas because they’re coming in off the field or they’re in season, but you haven’t actually put any time under the bar. And like, that’s just, that’s where we come in. Like, sure, there’s a gap and it bothers me, but if there wasn’t that gap where people weren’t learning it, then my company wouldn’t exist.
Connor Agnew:
Well, there you go. That’s a good gap to have for you personally then. You know, I remember my, one of my favorite professors that I had was actually a strength and conditioning coach at Temple University. So he was Sam Whitney. He was working with ⁓ a couple of different teams in the Olympic side and then came in and taught a couple of classes. And that was the most valuable class to me because again, it was a technique, was an Olympic and powerlifting technique class.
But he just made things realistic like he when we talked about power clean technique, know or front squats We talked about ankle mobility as well Just these small things that wouldn’t really pop up unless you had the experience and you saw limitations that athletes typically experience and same thing that you said We’re talking about okay. They’re coming from practice. They’re coming from field work. That’s why I’m a big proponent of going to practice Personally, I like it because I like get to watch basketball. I love watching basketball so I get to watch it for free
But at the same time, you know, I can understand. Okay. If coach was on one today and all of sudden we went, you know, 60 minutes over what our practice plan was and ran a ridiculous amount of sprints. Obviously, if you have squats planned afterwards, it’s going to have to look a little bit different.
Justin Lima:
Yeah. And like for me, that was Ellen Robinson. So she was one of our teachers and she was one of the, was my program advisor who like shout out to her for actually getting me on the right on the correct path because I, you know, I had like my list of, right, I’m going to do these classes. I’m going to go, I want to do my internship at BC football. Cause like BC was the best. was ACC football in the Northeast. And she’s like, you should go to Harvard. She’s like Harvard, the guy there.
You’re going to get a better experience. You’re going to actually be able to learn and do things. And she was right. Like I was a coach. I was doing the thing because Harvard had 42 different varsity athletes with only five strength coaches on staff. So in their 24 rack weight room, they would break it up into like groups of four, four platforms or maybe groups of three platforms. And the coaches are making sure that everybody’s staying safe, but then you’re in the weeds. You’re the one that’s coaching things. You’re the one that’s actually doing it.
She’s like, you’re not going to get to do that at BC. So if it wasn’t for her actually advising me and helping me, I would have been in trouble. And I say all that, but she was also a lifter. had an Olympic weightlifting team there and she was the one like, so when she’s talking, like you said, cleans snatch poles or just, Hey, understanding bodybuilding splits, understanding any of these types of things. She actually had sweat equity and was doing it and could demonstrate it into me.
And maybe that’s a flaw of mine. And maybe some of our listeners aren’t there out there aren’t that way. But I really just, grew up where it’s like, I hate the notion of do as I say, not as I do, like be the example. Like I want to embody the things a for strength coaches to listen to. But like, I want my kids to see me doing the right thing. And like, you should be eating in your own restaurant as William Whelan said, like if you’re not training and you’re that skinny chef, like either you have a really fast metabolism or like
I don’t think you know what good food tastes like.
Connor Agnew:
Do you feel like the field is going a little bit further to the side that you’re saying where a lot of people aren’t really starting to, or the field is starting to see where strength and conditioning coaches are not being as involved in what they’re doing. They’re not staying dedicated to a lifting plan, whatever it may be.
Justin Lima:
I don’t know. Like, I don’t know. I feel like people, they, they get too caught up with this word busy. And I, I absolutely hate the word busy. Like how would you like when you hate how you met, man, I’m in the weeds, right? Like I’m, I’m working a lot, but I’ll tell you what I’m shutting. Like I stopped work the minute it’s three o’clock because I got to go get my kids, which is why I wake up at four, right? I’m doing lots of things, but I need to be productive with my time. And I say all of that because the number of coaches that I’ve worked with are seen.
just in their normal they waste time whether it’s scrolling on their phone or just chit chatting with a co worker when it’s like, if you need that like therapy to just talk to somebody like go talk to a therapist find like a specific time or understand that you’re taking your time away from work, go have that therapeutic session or whatever you need with somebody outside of work hours. Be so so obsessed during your work time. ⁓ Golly Matt. ⁓
over at Michigan basketball. When I had him on the show, he was talking. He’s like, when I’m at work, let me work. Shut up. Leave me alone. Let me work. Let me do my job. When I’m off work, I’m off and I’m done. He would from team builder. He just posted something on LinkedIn the other day. Like during your 40 hours, like, I don’t think people understand how much 40 hours actually is when you can hyper focus and get your, like, you should be exhausted by the end of your 40 hour week instead of just like, I’m punching my clock and I’m here. Like,
How intentional and obsessed are you in your 40 minutes of work to get the thing done? And I just don’t see that. I don’t see enough people being obsessive. And I I used to hear somebody, well, I was just so busy. Yo, when I hear you say the word, I was busy or like your, what you’re not saying is you’re not important or I have more things going on than you. And I’m like, I got a kid, I got a wife. I have more athletes to train than you. And yet you can’t get it done. Like,
But strength and conditioning as a whole just needs to get cleaned up in terms of like understanding hours worked on a project doesn’t make it better. It just means it took you longer. And in the business world, even like my dad, who’s a grocery store manager, if any of his front end managers who were stocking things like, ⁓ Lino, it took me 12 hours to get the produce stocked. And be like, bro, why? Like, well, we worked really hard on it. Well, he big work more efficiently. Like it doesn’t mean it’s not work hard or like work.
as hard as you can to get the task done as fast as you can, and then move on to the next instead of this, well, I’m just gonna take forever to do it. No, man, get the job done and move on and get the next job done. Go be great.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, it really makes me think of, I’ve mentioned this book many times on this podcast, but Deep Work by Cal Newport. And I mean, I love that book and it was kind of life-changing for me because I was the exact strength coach that you are detailing previously prior to reading this book because I like, would say I’m just busy all the time. I’m working in season. I’m working for 70 hours per week, which was highly incorrect because a lot of that time, like you said, was either on
social media and stop by and hang out with the coaches for an hour or whatever it may be. There was a lot of time wasted. And then I read that book and all of a sudden I figured out, okay, well, what I thought was necessary for, you know, 50 hours was necessary to complete this work. I could really get that done in 15. And then I could spend the other time on things that like continuing education or actually working out because my GA and I, know, whenever we talk about, did you train today? You know, it wasn’t like, Oh, I was too busy to train. was literally, we would say like, Oh, I was too lazy.
Like, you know, I’ll be honest, like, this is called what it is. Like I was lazy. I recall it like I was low T today. So I didn’t end up doing it. Like there wasn’t like, there’s no excuses to it because there’s really always time to work things in that are valuable to you. just depends if it’s valuable or not.
Justin Lima:
And I used to say that to the players like I I kind of mess with them. ⁓ coach. You know, hey, did you go to do that? Hey, no, I didn’t. I was like, all Hey, who’s the finest girl right now? What? Like you need to meet like, and I’m trying to get their attention. it was so it’s okay. Cool. If she said you could go to dinner with her, if you got the job done, you’d probably get it done. Wouldn’t you? So like, I just don’t want to hear it.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, you know, and then again, it’s excuses and it’s not cutting down to the real issue of it, which I agree. And I appreciate you being candid about it. You know, one of the things that I was curious about is I feel like through your social media and just seeing what you present a lot, and I promise you we’ll get back to strength coach network at some point. I just love the conversation and how it’s going. You know, you are very candid and you’re open with your opinions. What allows you to do that? Because I think a lot of strength coaches are hesitant about
opinions or hurting feelings of other coaches or worried about what sport coaches might think, know, what goes into your process of just being open and candid with what you say.
Justin Lima:
being obsessed with doing what’s right. And like, like, just really trying to do it. Not trying to, this is gonna sound like I don’t want to offend people in the sense of like, I’m going to be rude to you and call you a name. Like I’m going to make fun of you, Connor, and I’m going to degrade you. Like that’s a problem. But I mean, it’s right here. I had this from when we were at Iowa. Anybody that might not be reading it says you’re either coaching it or you’re allowing it to happen.
Connor Agnew:
There you go.
Justin Lima:
So that’s what we had at Iowa. Like we’re either coaching these kids to do the thing or we’re allowing it to happen. So we can either sit back and act like there’s not a bunch of fraudulent, bad things happening in strength and conditioning or whatever, or we can actually say and have an opinion and speak on these things, but doing it in a way to move the needle forward. So again, quote here, his cure, what I’m flat ratio was if your, if your complaints to
suggestions ratio is greater than one than one, you’re an oxygen thief. So that means if you’re complaining about this, you’re complaining like, and I’ve got four complaints and I have one solution, I got a four to one, I, my numbers are four, I’m an oxygen thief. If I have four complaints and three suggestions, still an oxygen thief. But if I find four things that are wrong, and I say, these are four ways to fix it. I’m there, I’m helping I’m actually positively, positively contributing. So that’s why and
It also comes from my family, like my dad, ⁓ the way that he was raised, like he moved, my dad has no college degrees. My father had a, he moved over here from the Azores, which are the islands outside of Portugal. So like, also have all that context of like, we, like, I mean, we could go real deep and dive into other spiritualness of it, but like my father comes, came from the Island outside of the Portugal, the Azores, his, his father, my grandfather and my grandmother moved.
their kids from the Azores to Massachusetts when my dad was eight, nine, 10 right around there. So I have, you know, family that was like, we’re going to move and get a better life because we want to do what’s best for our kids. So I have that strength inside of me. Like I have that blood flowing through me. But then also my dad graduated high school, had a job working through high school, played some sports was never, he’s not as big as me. I’m six, three, two 60. was
three inch pound offensive lineman. Mom was tall. Dad’s dad played soccer. Dad played, was in the chess club, but he liked to work and he was good at working. He was a bad boy and he graduated high school. It was like, I’m done going. I don’t want to go to college because where he was from, you were done going to school after fourth grade. Like it was after fourth grade, you’re working on the farm. You’re working in the house as a, like that was just what it was. So he was, he was used to working.
And just worked his way up like, I’m good at this. Like, I see what my boss is doing. I can do that. I can do that. I can do that. And then when he started to be in positions of leadership, he would just tell them like, listen, you’re not paying me to just sit back and be idle. Like you’re paying me to help move the needle and do things forward. So I’ve got that. But then also when I worked at Iowa, one of the best things about Doyle was he, he did say he never wanted yes men. And he didn’t, there were some times in staff meetings where I would be like, coach, this is wrong.
And Joel would be like, listen, bro, like, you got to like, you have to let him fail and realize that the suggestion that you or any of us made is wrong. He’ll then on the floor or on the field, tell us that, you know, he’s going to change it to something that you said, but he has to think it’s his opinion. I’m like, whatever. Fine. That didn’t happen all the time. It happened occasionally, but he did encourage us to disagree behind closed doors. at the end of the day, when we’d leave, we’d be a unified front.
Well, right now on social media, we don’t have the ability. Yes. Inside strength coach network. I share education with our members to try to help them improve, but I’m just so obsessed with being right and doing right for our athletes and just all the re like, see the repercussions of things. If you’re not training your athletes properly, the ramifications that can happen where sport coaches aren’t happy. People can lose their job. Fans don’t get to watch a good product. Like I’m just so obsessed with the whole product that I want to see what’s good, but I do also have.
the ability of now being detached where I don’t, I don’t work for a university that’s like, Justin, shut your mouth on this. But I also, don’t, I don’t go sticking my head out on things that don’t really matter. Like I’ll talk about, you know, actual strength and conditioning things.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, it’s not rage baiting. It’s just, you know, stuff that makes…
Justin Lima:
It’s not rage baiting and I’m not like, yeah, I’m
staying in my lane. I’m not like, as strength coaches, let’s talk like, no, like we’re going to talk about strength and conditioning matter.
Connor Agnew:
Well, you mentioned the spiritual aspect. Can you tell me more about that? I’m interested.
Justin Lima:
Well, like, I mean, for like, we have the same spirit of the same spirit of Christ, the same spirit of God that lives in us and dwells in us inside the Holy Spirit. Like, so why, why should I be timid? And like, that took me a really long time to dive into my, my Christianity and to dive into understanding, like, hey, the same, the same dwelling, the same tabernacle that God used to dwell in, in that tabernacle was we were told when Jesus descended,
and came and rose and when he left his disciples, he was like, Hey, I’m sending you the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit’s inside you. So the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in me and lives in all of us. Like, why am I like, come on now? Like, I can’t be timid, I have to go out and just be be an obedient server, be an obedient servant and do what I’m called to do.
Connor Agnew:
So having that ultimate purpose helps drive your career even further.
Justin Lima:
a thousand percent. And now I didn’t really dive in. Like I didn’t talk about that in terms of like, Hey, first and foremost, I’m a child of God. Then I’m a husband. Then I’m a father. Then I’m a coach. I never felt comfortable to do that at my public institutions. And I also didn’t, I didn’t dive into, didn’t have as good of an education, just like most things when people don’t understand things and they’re not educated on a topic, they’re not going to really talk about it as much. shame on me for not doing more within my own faith, but I was raised Catholic where
in the Catholic, anybody who’s listening to Catholicism, typically it’s like, you don’t read the Bible, you’re too big of a sinner to even touch the thing. ⁓ So once I started to actually dive into my faith and understand it better, I understood and that was, ⁓ you know, life changing for me with with respect to that. But I would always tell recruits, hey, I’m a husband, I’m a father, and then I’m a coach. And when you do it in that order, it doesn’t mean that you’re not as important, but it means that I’m actually able to
be a better coach to you because I’ve taken care of all other aspects of
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, you know, being raised Catholic, I can tell you I really know the difference between half kneeling and kneeling. Yeah.
Justin Lima:
right? And
making sure your butts not back on the pew like get up, get up boy. Like but Uncle Joe’s got his butt backwards on the bench. Let me get my butt on the pew like ⁓
Connor Agnew:
exactly. Trust me. Yeah, that’s not happening. I promise you that.
Not for you, young man. Well, I love that perspective. I guess it kind of brings me to my next question a little bit too. One of the things you’ve always mentioned and brought up in your social media posts is something like GoTo. What are the ethical challenges?
Justin Lima:
Exactly. ⁓
gosh.
Connor Agnew:
with using an athlete’s injury to help promote your product or sell what you’re trying to sell.
Justin Lima:
Ugh, yeah.
so fraudulent, like, and to not like, to not only not have like, any of those people, anybody that doesn’t, there’s no repercussion to saying anything fraudulent or wild, like, shame on them for saying it. But like, there’s what they’re going to like, they can they can get away with it. So it’d be lovely if there’s a way to like, actually handle that. ⁓ But just the fact that you can say these words.
that have no repercussion or no like, well, if so and so would have done this, there’s no way to refute it. There’s no way to prove that it’s actually correct. So why are you saying this? And not to mention the fact that you’ve got this person, but let’s use the Tyrese Halliburton ⁓ example. Indiana Pacers lose game seven of being world champs, their best player goes down and is now going to be out likely the entire next year. And you’re going to be
kicking them when they’re down saying, well, if you went to hired me, I wouldn’t have let this happen. Child, please to quote Chad on Joe Cinco, the number of things that go into an injury, not to mention the fact that life and everything, it’s a matrix. You have a good mover, bad mover, good mover, weak, bad mover. Like, so there’s going to be people, the number of people that have Woda or whatever these awful movement patterns that don’t get hurt. It’s the, it’s the logical of
black, all swans are black. The minute you see a white swan, your statement all swans are black is wrong. You cannot go about saying it. So when you’ve got these these go to folks being like, well, look at ⁓ look at Josh Allen and his feet if he could only get his feet straight. Imagine how much better he’d be. Like you’re so full of it. It’s coming out of your face because okay, the guys never had any soft tissue injuries. So how are going to make him
He’s never had a soft tissue injury. Now you’re going to say that he’ll be, how do you get better than never having a soft tissue injury? How do you get better than being an MVP cat? Like getting paid as much as you get paid. Like it goes back to the fact that who was it? Golly, um, Scott Sinclair, know, um, Scott Cochran, you’re Bentley. I’m just putting spinners on you. That’s the reality. That’s what we are. All right. We’re a good insurance policy to keep things.
up and running and tinkering sure there’s biomechanical things that we have to make sure that we’re keeping within the range of good proper movement and yes, training the foot is important, but that’s not going go to making sure that we deload the spine at certain times and deload the body. That’s important. That’s not going go to breathing exercises and properly breathing when you’re training. That’s not going go to either, but they just come up with these absolutes and then like
I learned about these people, the functional range, not not FRC function, not functional range condition, but like functional movements. ⁓ I looked them up and like they’re they’re the like, squatting is never enough. deadlifting is never enough sprinting like unless you’re doing functional condition like these just fraudulent charlatans that just make up these claims and it’s like, I hate it. You can hear it in my voice. I hate it. Because it’s just so it doesn’t it violates the said principle.
Like, I’m sorry, but the said principle still remains true. You want to get better at something? Do that thing.
Connor Agnew:
So do you think these things and these training styles come about just as a way to make money because they speak in absolute? So it’s a little bit easier.
Justin Lima:
Yes. And people are easily
like, you and I both know this every week, humans, we crave simplicity, right? We crave homeostasis to stay alive. And it’s like, wait a minute, there is like, there’s a reason that the 30 second, 60 second AB or the six minute AB routine or the put this on your AB and it’ll shock your belly to give you abs. it’s like that person on that video who’s got a six pack did not only do that, but legally they’re allowed to say it.
and everybody’s looking for the shortcut magic pill. There isn’t one, but that doesn’t sell. That’s like, Jocko got good at getting people to kind of understand discipline equals freedom and get rid of motivation and like get rid of how you feel. But what doesn’t sell is, Hey, you’re not going to feel like it today. You’re not going to want to train. You’re not going to, but to avoid, to avoid that, you got to have to go and do the suck. You’re probably not going to want to do it. So you’re going to have to go through the motion. Some of the time you’re going to feel great. Some days you’re to feel like shit. Some days
but somewhere in the middle, you just have to keep training and day after day, time after time, you will get where you want to go. If you don’t train based off of your emotions, that ain’t sexy. What sexy is stop all the other BS and put this on your AB and make it shock or Hey, ⁓ your strength coach got you hurt. ⁓ wait a minute. I got hurt. You know what? Maybe he did. Yeah. He’s not doing this. So that’s why you should have gotten hurt. And it’s like, when you get these
older athletes that have trained for a really long time and maybe their nervous system is fried because of all the things that’s going on. And you allow the nervous system to just relax and breathe by doing no bar on your back, not getting like, sure, you’ll feel good for a period of time. But if you’re not stressing the athlete with enough adaptation to get him better, you’re not going to actually get better. Not to mention the fact that there’s been go to people that get hurt. There’s been Joel Seidman, people like the one of the
best post was after Seidman tried coming after ⁓ Ben Bruno, which I love Ben Bruno have talked to Ben before. But why don’t like the Pacers strength staff? How come they weren’t being talked about how good of a job they did preparing their athletes? Side note. So yeah, Seidman’s going after Ben Bruno, which in Seidman’s thing, he’s like, ⁓ three like train barefoot in five in four of the seven videos, the dude is training barefoot idiot. ⁓
but some guy was like, Joel, we’re going to start blaming people. We’re going to blame people for their injuries. And like, he’s like, Hmm, pretty sure you train this guy injured, pretty sure you train this guy injured. And it’s just like,
It’s so, so wrong because that’s why I hate the word injury prevention. We can’t prevent it, Connor. can’t, it just can’t happen. And if you start thinking like legal terms, insurance, and you think like, I’m going to prevent injury for you, Connor. sweet. We’re just, he’s going to prevent it. Somebody gets hurt. Hey, Justin, I thought you’re going to prevent that. Like fraudulent.
Connor Agnew:
And that’s just such a challenge with strength and conditioning too because you can never prove that you prevented an injury either. There’s no way to…
Justin Lima:
You can never know. Bob Alejo,
Bob Alejo’s episode with us came out last Friday bonus episode. He’s like, listen, if you can predict, if you can prevent it, you can predict it. You need to be real careful at not patting yourself on the back. Like I’ve said this before, I’ve gone on record and I’m gonna say it again. The Philadelphia Eagles athletic training staff and strength staff. Y’all put a giant target on your back. 21 out of 22 starters. Where, where this, where that? And it’s like,
Lord forbid y’all start getting hurt because the minute you want to start taking the credit, you better be willing to start taking the blame. And that’s a real dangerous spot to be because if you if you want all the glory, you better be willing to take all the blame.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, it’s like my experience in women’s basketball for some reason, there’s always this conversation about not being in enough shape, right? And I remember, yeah, yep, exactly. And I remember we played a game where we were down 20 in the fourth quarter and we ended up coming back and winning. And it was a great game and they were like, Connor, it’s all because of you, because of the conditioning stuff that we did. And I was like, no, it was not. No, it was not because I knew.
Justin Lima:
soccer too.
⁓
Connor Agnew:
Three weeks later, we played a game and we were tired because it was our fourth game in like 10 days or whatever. It was this crazy stretch. And they’re like, our conditioning sucks. And I was like, well, I didn’t take credit, so you can’t blame me now.
Justin Lima:
Well, it’s just so sick the minute like a win versus a loss can change everything. Right? Like
Connor Agnew:
Yep. Two
points. One point could be the difference between having a great weekend or having the worst weekend of your life.
Justin Lima:
you know, and like you said, ⁓ Andy Rylan said this one time to talking about like the fourth quarter comeback or figuring out your halftime adjustment, like, maybe it wasn’t necessarily like, I wore you out. But I got now enough exposures against you. So if I’m a D lineman, and you’re an O lineman, and I’m pass rushing, I actually understand how your pass blocking me better. So I can set you up better to get to the quarterback.
or for playing basketball, I understand what’s going on. I schematically know you better. And now I can attack you. Yes. Having a good, you know, being strong and being in shape will help. Like it’s not important, unimportant, but Bill Gillespie, when we were on a flight together, talked about the fact he’s like, when I was at, wow, when I was at Washington, he’s like, I had to tell the coaches like, listen, coach, if you’re not bringing me good athletes that are good at their sport, I can get them bigger and stronger and more powerful.
They’re just going to be bigger, stronger, more powerful and bad at their sport. And like the coach kind of pause. goes, I told them, go bring me a bowler. If you bring me somebody that’s ⁓ awful bowler skill wise, they can’t bowl, but I get them bigger, stronger, faster, better shape. There’s still going to be a bad bowler. They’re just going to be able to bowl bad longer. So like I say that to the strength coaches listening, you have to have good technical.
people that play their sport. Yes, try hard. Yes, get them stronger. Yes, get them faster. Yes, get them in better shape. That’s our job that will help them be able to do their task at practice longer. But if you get me to go run routes against elite DB, I work really hard. I’m in pretty good shape for a big guy. I but I ain’t getting separation like it’s just not happening.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, I like to tell our interns all the time that the best strength coach on staff is actually your recruiting coordinator.
Justin Lima:
Joe Ken, his episode is getting dropped in about four hours today in his episode. That’s what he said. He’s like, you want to be a good strength coach? Be real good friends with the recruiting coordinator.
Connor Agnew:
Exactly, you know, but we have guys we had a freshman come in. He’s up 30 pounds and some I think it’s what 12 weeks, which I’m a little concerned with. I don’t love that much of a weight gain, but he was severely undersized and you know, everybody’s like Connor, great job. And I was like, no, you guys just got me a guy who’s got really good genetics, can put on weight well ⁓ and was happened to be super undersized and is going to be a freak and he’s really skilled. So that’s why he looks good right now.
Justin Lima:
Well,
to that point, I one time I’m going to staff meeting at Towson and they were talking about bringing this kid in who was like, this is where you can be. It goes both ways. I think I’m good at my job. I’m not here to say that I don’t, but I also understand my importance and that I’m literally just one sliver of the pie, which is why I love the four coactive model and understanding it because it helps you understand why, why people win and how they understand that stuff. ⁓ I had, ⁓ the head coach was like,
hearing about all these injuries or this person he’s like, well, that’s why I got him. He’s gonna take care of it. And it’s like, you give me a bag of milk, it’s still a bag of milk. Like, Come on, like, there’s only so much I can do, especially in certain time limits of like
I mean, not to mention the fact that you can’t like if a kid isn’t going to eat and sleep and take care of their body and it’s not a cop out. Yes, you can educate them and give them all the things. But at the end of the day, you have to connect to the person to get them to want to do the thing. Just like I’m looking at a Baltimore Sun article here from a kid. Jesus gives came back from a torn Achilles seven months towards Achilles in October. By the end of spring ball, April, May, he was cleared to play. Did mean did Kyle and I have a positive impact on Jesus’s return to play?
1000 % I keep it there to remind me when I work really well with my at and you work really well with the athlete. Great things are possible. But this kid also bought into it. He allowed himself to be depressed for the first month. Feel your feelings. Don’t don’t hide. Don’t suppress your feelings. That’s something that most people don’t understand about stoicism. stoics were never like, don’t feel your feelings. No, feel it, understand it, recognize it, and move on from it and don’t let it dictate your the rest of your life. So he was miserable for a little bit and he’s like,
I’ve been sad about it. I’ve experienced the emotion. Let’s move forward. And he was the one that was putting in the work. Yes, there were days that he physically couldn’t because he was sore and tired and we had to adapt and adjust. it was the athlete that did the work. We just help guide them and keep them on the path.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, you know, and again, it just goes back to, you willing to accept credit for these things? Because ultimately it’s probably not a hundred percent what you were involved with. It’s definitely not a hundred percent you. ⁓ and so then that goes back to the same thing with go to, or like you say, with the functional range trainers, whatever they’re speaking with, they take a hundred percent of the credit. and that’s where you can know that what they’re providing is essentially false because at a base level, that’s not correct. ⁓ it all depends on the athlete and what they do and how they prepare on a daily basis.
Justin Lima:
Yeah, and like we’re just part like the parents birthed and raised this kid like, so most of us work like any of us working in college athletics. We’re not outdoing what mom and dad did for maybe 18 years 20 years like we’re helping shape them and yes, like to quote, you know, Rob again from Towson.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah.
Justin Lima:
part of our job might be to kick the apple far from the tree. If mom and dad didn’t raise the son or daughter the right way and have some bad habits. at end of the day, like we only have them for a short amount of time and hopefully we can speed that up and have a great relationship with them. But mom and dad are the ones that instill these values and coaches that place their value. But like that goes back to, I don’t place my and I used to. And so that’s why I’m talking to you straight. ⁓
If you place your value in anything other than being a child, a loved child of God, you’re going to come up short. If you place that stress on your spouse, that’s not fair to them. That’s not fair to your spouse. That’s not fair to your kids. That’s not fair to your job. Like, so when you place your value in that, you’re going to set yourself up for failure because all of it can get taken away from you in the blink of an eye.
Connor Agnew:
How did you recognize that? Because that’s a very profound statement and I agree wholeheartedly, but it’s tough to come to that realization.
Justin Lima:
getting a getting alone by myself have going through valleys myself like literally losing my job at Towson when I didn’t think I was going to I was told like my wife and I left Iowa she was seven months pregnant when we left Iowa near her this is where she grew up she was a hot guy like I’m living life I’m right hand man like doing tons of things at Iowa
But I get an opportunity to run things, do it my own way. And we were told you’re not hired. Like we knew at Iowa, Hey, we win, we get more money, we lose, we’re getting fired. Cool. We’re cool. We understood the rules of engagement. So when I go to Towson, it’s, Hey, you’re not hired by the head football coach. You work with other teams. You’re not going to get let go if the foot head football coach gets fired. So that’s what we thought were the rules of engagement. And then to get let go out of the thin air on a random Thursday during spring break.
Like that was like, holy cow. Like I had placed so much of my value in like, yeah, I’m a good strength coach. Yeah, I’m this. And so hitting that rock bottom and then that was one of them. But then also fully diving into my faith, reading the whole Bible in a year in 2023, that really helped me. And then all the podcasts that our church did every Wednesday to support the readings and then the sermons on Sundays and just like actually reading and understanding like what this book of ultimate truth says and being like, holy cow. Yeah.
that’s right. I mean, hardhead makes a soft ass and we plant the seeds, God grows them, right? Like the fertile ground and where’s it going to grow? And for a while I hadn’t, but it is, it’s just like anything else. It’s uncomfortable to kind of hear the truth. My kids don’t want me to tell them the truth, even though it’s the truth. have to tell them truth and love, but yeah.
Connor Agnew:
Well, I really appreciate you recognizing that and sharing your story on that front because I feel like that’s where a lot of strength coaches become unhappy is they place value in their career. They place value in who they are. My, one of my main mentors at Tennessee would always call it the slaying dragons, right? Of just trying to be, ⁓ the number one power for strength coach, the highest paid, whatever it may be when ultimately there’s a bigger purpose behind what you do.
Justin Lima:
Yeah. I mean, like I said, listen, I’m not like we’re all, we’re all sinners in need of saviors. I’m not just saying like, truly believe I’ve been there as somebody that was on that path. And like, to me, I left Iowa because yes, I was an assistant and here’s an opportunity for me to go be a head guy at Towson. And then I can jump and go to the next thing. And we go back to the playoffs in 2018 and my name’s being thrown around by Randy Etzel. So I’m like, yeah, I’m feeling good about myself.
But then I started to fall in love with being at Towson. I really did. like, was it perfect? No, but we made it perfect where we were. And I got to collaborate with Kyle at a high level. We’re playing, beating top 20 teams every year, getting back to the playoffs, being competitive with FBS teams. Like, and I was realizing that I could pour into kids and instead of just jumping ship to go to the next one, I’m seeing a kid develop from year one to year four or even two, like,
And you see the progress that a kid can make and you’re like, Holy cow, there is so much more to this. And I can impact these kids so much more than just, you know, it’s the book transactional versus transformational, any of that stuff, right? Like, and I got to actually see it and it was like, Oh, this is so much better than just going and chasing that next logo or the next paycheck, which is why again, here is four peers, his four P’s, your progression, pay purpose and personal life. That’s how you need to assess a job. So yes, how much do you get paid?
If ⁓ what’s your career progression? Have you gone from assistance to head? Are you climbing and moving that way? Personal life. Do you have a personal life or are you guarding your desk all the time? And then sense a greater purpose. Are you actually a cog in the wheel, moving things forward and doing things, or you just have to keep your mouth shut, do what the person ahead of you says to do. And if you’ve got all four of four, you don’t leave unless there’s a better four or four, they fire you or you retire. If you got three or four, you really only leave unless you can get four or four.
or you can flip the three or four and it gets better somewhere else to a four actively look for a new job one or four. What are you doing? And so I say all of that because if you’re chasing a paycheck, you get paid a lot, you now have golden handcuffs, your pay is great, but you have no personal life, you’re not seeing your family, you have no career progression because you have no upward mobility. And you don’t feel like you’re a part of something bigger than yourself. Now you’re miserable. Sure, you got a paycheck. But are you actually able to have time to
see your kids, see your spouse and then be a positive member of society. Like me now being here and working at the gym goldfinch like even just yesterday saw somebody from the gym when I was with my boys going and grabbing something at Coles like saw hi to her and she like, you know, great to even just be able to do something like that or, you know, being a being a positive member of the community instead of just stuck in your gym like golly, there’s so much that you can pour into and you literally will become a better coach for it.
Connor Agnew:
I love the term golden handcuffs because I mean truly that’s one of been one of my concerns about when other job opportunities have come up, you know, and people have previously said to me candidly like.
you, hit your wagon to a great coach. Like he’s doing a really good job. He’ll get hired at a power four school soon, whatever it may be. Right. And what I like about him is we’ve had success. know he’s had other opportunities, but he loves it here and he loves what we’re able to do. And I think we’re meeting all four of those peas. And so he’s happy and it’s no need to just jump ship, just to go get higher pay. And then now all of sudden you’re stuck with that. And there’s also a lot of other challenges that come with the higher pay too. There’s a lot, the higher you paid a lot easier it is for you to get fired too.
Justin Lima:
So analogy of that, and let’s talk investing, let’s talk finances, because we’ve talked about that anyway, we talked about that at Strength Coach Network, because I preface it would do your own research, this is not financial advice, you can’t take this to a lawyer, go talk to your own financial advisor, but we need to be talking about our finances to be able to help understand them and pay bills, period. ⁓ NIL world.
If you go and you go chase that bag and let’s just say, let’s say American football, let’s say you go and you go to Ohio state or any of these schools that are paying out and they’re paying tons of money. Well, remember there’s no contract. They don’t contractually owe you anything. So you could go there, you could not perform and then they’ll cut you. And now you’ve lost the bag and maybe you got one year of your $5 million that they said. So maybe you get 1.5. That’s still a lot of life changing money. I’m not here to say it wasn’t.
versus you go somewhere where they’re only gonna offer you three mil over the course of your time there, but you’ve got a longer leash. They trust you more. They’ll be with you through the ups and downs. You’re there the whole time. Like this kid, ⁓ the kid from Tennessee that just transferred to ⁓ UCLA, like his stock has so dropped. Like UCLA is probably gonna move on from him. Nobody’s gonna be paying him. And he could have just kept his mouth shut, stayed at Tennessee and earned more money.
And so same thing happens. Like you go and you chase that better job, unless it’s generational life changing money, like a million dollars a year for a strength coach. Like, but we’re not going to get paid that versus now you look at what Kirk Ferentz did around here at Iowa. There was head coaches or there was GMs from the NFL calling him back in 02, 03, 04. He stayed. Look how he’s able to raise all his kids in the same high school. Matt Campbell, when he came here, there were, you know, there were people calling to try to get him hired out of Ames, but he’s like, Hey,
Where can I put like, you know this, how much dollars does it does it cost? Or is it earned? When you know, like, I know the school that my kids are going to go to. I know that my wife can sleep at night knowing that I’m not going to get fired and she like she can be okay. What’s the monetary value that my kids just walked to school 800 meters away from school? I don’t know, but it’s pretty darn high.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, it would take, it would take a lot to change what you have. And sometimes it would, it would, mean, there wouldn’t be anything to be able to change it. ⁓ it’s just a great situation for you and your family. So why jinx it? Why, ⁓ make these sweeping changes for ultimately no reason. Yeah. Well, strength coach network, you know, like you said, you, talk about a lot of different things. Can you just explain to our listeners what strength coach network is?
Justin Lima:
Correct.
Connor Agnew:
What are the different branches of it? Because I know you have the online education, the podcast. Can you just describe it to us,
Justin Lima:
Yeah. So we very simply, we are able to help you earn your CEUs while staying in your office. So that way you don’t have to worry about traveling to conferences. They’re expensive. They take up a lot of time and I want you to be able to actually have that time back, or I want you be able to go and visit staffs, but you can’t do that because you don’t earn CEUs when you go and visit somebody. I’d learned a ton from being on the floor watching you train athletes, but I’m not going to earn any CEUs.
And then I’d have to go spend that going to other conferences, get strength coach network. We’re able to help you save money, save time on your CEU. So you keep your cert. Our main thing that we have is we have a membership webinar library. So we’ve got 182 webinars on every topic and every sport that you could think of inside that. There’s also a forum where you can learn about job postings. You can upload your resume. You can talk with members across the country and across the world.
And with those job postings, it’s like, Hey, I know so and so who’s hiring. Let me help you fix your resume. Let me recommend you and bring you to the front of the line because it’s all about networking and connections. So that’s the main thing that we have is that annual membership, that monthly membership, however you want to get inside. But those are courses, excuse me, webinars taught by the best coaches in the world. I said, Alex and Tara, Dan path, buddy Morris, whatever topic you want to learn about. Don’t do it by yourself.
Then we have these long form courses. So think about the membership kind of like going to an all you can eat buffet. Hey, I want some of this. I want some of this. I want some of this. We have courses now where it’s like, Hey, you’re going to go sit down at a restaurant and this is the menu that we’re serving you tonight. So there’s a course on ACL rehab and it’s sure whatever sport you work with, but this is criteria based instead of timeline based early stage, mid stage, late stage, return to play taught to you by a coach that still works with athletes and has an academic background. ACL course.
Coach Bondarchuk’s course, if you need to understand about transfer of training, understand about periodization of exercises, and what we do in the weight room and how it transfers out onto the field. Hey, Bondarchuk and his periodization model is still used today. It’s one of the best he was a great coach, but he was also a great athlete himself. Go learn in the course from strength coach network by somebody that worked under coach Bondarchuk. Our two long form courses fundamentals one and two. Those are
specific, you know, there’s different categories. We’re going to talk about speed, power development, nutrition, all of them, but it’s guided. It’s that guided path rather than like, I want to learn about baseball. Cool. We’re not going to talk about only baseball in fundamentals, but we’re going to talk about rotational power. We’ll talk about hypertrophy and then you’re going to learn to apply those principles to the situation you work in. we have the new sprint biomechanics course. that Jeff Moyer literally talking about, Hey, what’s the history of biomechanics? What’s the history of
sprinting and how people have, you know, looked at it and it’s evolved over time, how to develop your coaching eye, what is the different key movements in sprinting and then how we can actually help athletes improve. And then finally, we have Matt Jordan’s force plate course. tons of ways for you to learn and learn from the comfort of your office without having to travel. Now you can spend the rest of your budget on visiting staff, getting more equipment and you don’t get tied up.
in travel and you don’t get caught up with lot of expensive fees.
Connor Agnew:
Yeah, and one of my main gripes with conferences too is that when I go there, I’m going to see a lot of my friends and the last thing I’m going want to do is now go to presentations. I’m going want to hang out with my friends.
Justin Lima:
Well,
and so like I went to a prison, I went to a conference not too long ago where there was less than like, depending on where you go, the topics might not be relevant to you at all. Not at all. And it’s like, it’s also these pristine manicured like, well we did. It’s like, do you really like that? That’s not as clean as it is when we’re in the weight room. Like that’s not real. I want to see real. I want, I don’t want to see manicured fake. Like what
Connor Agnew:
Mm-hmm.
Justin Lima:
is real. And you don’t always get those at those conferences. And like I said, maybe some of them you don’t get as many CEOs like your dollar per CEO. I mean, because at the end of the day, there’s reasons that I have certain organizations, professional organizations being like, hey, we need memberships because we’re like, we’re coming close to this the deadline. We literally are working during this conference. And during this conference, we can’t travel like we can’t leave our athletes because we’re paid to train athletes.
the conferences are held and we’re supposed to train athletes. Can you help us out? And it’s like, yes, absolutely. That’s what like I’ve been in those shoes at ⁓ Iowa. We’re working in January all the way until the end of May, right? At Towson. Like you have, there’s certain times that you have to be training the athletes and it’s like, all right, why don’t you then learn on your own time at your own time.
Connor Agnew:
And so these are CEUs for CSCCA and NSCA.
Justin Lima:
So the, especially those coaches that are dual certified. So it’s like, Hey, you don’t have to go spend money to go to this one. And that one will be able to help you out with both.
Connor Agnew:
Wow, that’s awesome. I love that. And I know it’s tough to go through that CEU approval process. So kudos to you.
Justin Lima:
Yeah, it is.
It is. And, know, I also then I help out by serving on some, boards to help try to push the field forward in that too. It’s like, all right, I not only have strength coach network, but I’ll be in some executive, you know, council meetings on some different professional development groups or some board groups or some, know, behind the scenes to help those organizations as best as I can too, because it’s like, all right, let me use my brain to help the field as best as I can. That’s why I wrote the textbook that should be coming out here pretty soon because I got the manuscript done.
the publisher, ⁓ Cognola. So shout out to them for, know, doing this with me. And I’m excited about that book. The manuscript’s done. They have it. I was going through all the legal process of, ⁓ you know, giving names of people that are in photos or who took a photo of me on the sideline to be able to use that. Like you have to go through all the legal permissions and all that stuff. So they’re going through that. I sent them all that information. ⁓ the book’s called navigating a career in strength and conditioning.
And it’s to help you grow, you know, a field manual to go from like in intern to industry leader, because we know that that’s that climbing of a ladder. But I didn’t say like, head strength coach, because as an industry leader, you could be in tactical, you could be working in research, you could be working in the Olympic side, you could be working in the private sector, there’s all these different branches of strength and conditioning that too many young students don’t learn because it’s not taught because getting back to the point.
you’ve got professors that have never worked in any of these domains trying to educate you on
Connor Agnew:
Yeah. You know, I remember a lot of the advice I got when looking for my first, ⁓ strength and conditioning job, not from my mentors or people I was working with, but professors was just apply, you know, you know, see if they read your application and it’s like, well, it didn’t work out so well, you know.
Justin Lima:
Dude, you’re not
getting your job from a random job post or a resume. You’re getting it from relationships and like that relationship will get you in the door, but then what you know will keep you there.
Connor Agnew:
Yes.
Okay, so my final question for you. You bring me back to my days of being raised Catholic and a lot of good memories I have and some great songs. Are you a Mary Did You Know or Awesome God kind of guy? What would you have to pick?
Justin Lima:
⁓ and I’m gonna play the I’ll play the Phil Wickham ⁓ awesome God remix. ⁓ God, is it awesome? God like that remix that he did. I got goosebumps right now. Banger. Just when he remade it. Are you kidding me? Fire. I’m gonna be playing like now I’m gonna play it loud on my speaker the minute you’re done.
Connor Agnew:
Yup. Yup.
was awesome. And then we got to…
We would do at a growing in our high school we do mass at least once a month as a high school together and they get everybody clapping together and everything it was I mean it was a great time we loved it.
Justin Lima:
brother. my anybody listening if you if your church has a worship night like shout out Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines like those worship nights like my gosh like worship music bro set PRs a worship music what you talking about? Okay to twist it down.
Connor Agnew:
They’re fun.
Some
of our some of our best days in the weight room are when we play Kirk Franklin all the guys love it. yeah, absolutely. Well, Justin, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. If somebody wanted to explore strength coach network more, what would be the best way to do that?
Justin Lima:
Brother, Amen.
⁓ strength coach network.com is our website where you can learn about the membership, all the courses that we have to offer. Like you said, this free resources. So the blog, the YouTube channel.
podcast. It’s all there. We’ve got free documents, how to create a budget for yourself, how to like literally whatever you can think about how to Z score your athletes to be able to give test data to your coaches. It’s all right there. We’re on all social media channels. ⁓ I, if you just Google strength coach network on, or excuse me, if you search it on X Instagram, Facebook, we’re there. We’re not on tick tock. I don’t do tick tock. I’m not ticking and talking, but otherwise we’re everywhere else.
Connor Agnew:
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Justin. I really appreciate it. Absolutely.
Justin Lima:
Hey, thanks for having me on, Connor. was a blast.
