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Meg Squats: Getting a Barbell Into Every Woman’s Hands

Written by Jake Boly, CSCS
Last updated on November 11th, 2024

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Meg Gallagher, also known as Meg Squats, is a weathered strength coach, powerlifter, and YouTube personality. Currently, Meg has her hands in multiple projects that are all designed to help lifters everywhere improve their strength and knowledge in the world of fitness. Her popular program “Stronger By the Day” helps countless lifters improve on a weekly basis, and her apparel brand, Strong Strong Supply has some of the best lifting-focused apparel and gear in the game.

Meg and I chat on multiple topics in the world of strength & conditioning. A few in particular that we chat on are the vast differences of how beginners view fitness and how veterans do, and why she’s embarked on the mission of getting a barbell into every woman’s hands.

On this episode of The BarBend Podcast, guest host Jake Boly talks to Meg Squats about:

  • Creating inclusivity to strength sports through strategic messaging (2:45)
  • What sparked the idea behind “Stronger By the Day” (6:00)
  • How has creating a community with “Stronger By the Day” become an asset? (7:45)
  • What are the demographics like in the community? (9:40)
  • How do you navigate the cultural shifts and narratives that warn you not to lift for whatever reason? (12:50)
  • How to help the beginner combat the outside narrative when they haven’t found a community? (15:45)
  • Tips for finding your lifting community when just starting out (18:00)
  • How to find online lifting communities that align with your goals and needs (19:40)
  • What’s next to help barbells get into EVERYONE’S hands (22:35)
  • How can the industry as a whole approach getting more folks into barbell training (28:00)
  • Where to follow Meg and to find her program “Stronger By the Day”? (33:20)
  • Jake puts his foot in his mouth about the CSCS and how “easy” it really is (35:00)

Relevant links and further reading:

Transcription

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

 …something like 70 to 80 percent of women said that someone in their life told them not to lift for whatever reason. Even 45 percent of men said that someone in their life told them not to lift for whatever reason. It’s so funny.

 

My point in explaining that and pulling them, was that injuries are far more likely to happen in organized sports or team sports, or even something like running. Whereas in resistance training, injuries aren’t as common as those. That was my point.

 

Then people started messaging me the ridiculous things that their mom or their grandmother who…As the world changes, sometimes the older generations don’t get hit. I was getting all these crazy reasons, so I did that poll to see. I was surprised to see how many men also got the same resistance. Women aren’t alone in that fact.

Jake BolyJake Boly

Welcome to the “BarBend Podcast,” where we talk to the smartest athletes, coaches, and minds from around the world of strength. I’m your guest host, Jake Boly. This podcast is presented by barbend.com.

 

Megan Gallagher, also known as Meg Squats, is a well-known YouTube personality and strength coach within the fitness industry. Currently, Meg runs her main business, which is a subscription-based training program called Stronger by the Day, and her apparel company, Strong Strong Supply.

 

In today’s episode, we talk about a variety of topics, including studying for the CSCS, making strength information digestible for all, and much more. As always, we’re incredibly thankful that you’re here and you’re listening to our podcast. We would sincerely appreciate it if you dropped a review in the app of your choice.

 

Every month we pick a lucky listener who’s left us a review to receive a box full of BarBend swag.

 

Welcome to the BarBend Podcast. I am joined with Megan Gallagher, AKA Meg Squats. Meg, thank you so much for coming on. It’s always a joy when we get to catch up. Thank you again.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

Thanks for having me. We’ve been meaning to do this for a while. I’m terrible at texting you back. You’re not the only one, though, but we finally did it.

Jake BolyJake Boly

At least I’m not the only one. I’m guilty, too. I think you actually responded last time and I took three days to reply. That’s on me there. I’ll take the blame.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

That’s OK.

Jake BolyJake Boly

It’s like when you text a guy or a woman. You’re like, “Hey, what are you doing?” and then you don’t reply. Then a week later you’re like, “Oh, I’m good. You?”

 

In that awkward way. The focal point of what I want to talk about today is something that I think you do really well, and using your platform really well for, that is creating an inclusivity to strengths sports.

 

“Stronger By The Day” is your subscription program. It’s a really cool program, because you have such a wide, diverse amount of folks that follow it and use it to get stronger and live a healthier lifestyle.

 

Before we dive into the whole inclusivity aspect, what spurred the idea to start Stronger By The Day, and get out that messaging for including more folks into the idea of getting strong and making that a positive versus seeing it as being almost a negative thing in society?

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

Ryan is my partner, business partner and life partner too. [laughs] We were working for a while on a much more complicated approach to, I guess, scaling a program. Scaling in that sense, we mean, making something that a lot of our audience can partake in. We wanted to have something affordable, and something that was just solid programming to help anyone get stronger.

 

In the past five years, I’ve had a following that has grown so much. There’s so many different people watching what I’m saying and learning from me, or just following on Instagram for fun. I wanted to make sure that we were able to serve those people. Originally, we had an idea to make a much more complicated, customized option that was still, in a sense, automated.

 

As we were working on that we learned that the average person just needs to lift and utilize progressive overload, and have a balance to the movements that they’re doing. Also, frequency to the movements they’re doing, so that they can get better at them. Those were the pillars that we were even trying to incorporate with this much more complicated version of Stronger By The Day.

 

As we were building that, we started to realize that a lower barrier to entry just made more sense for our following and Stronger By The Day was born. There were definitely other social media influencers doing something similar like a team program.

 

We decided to go that route, and I’m so glad we did because it’s been such a huge success. I think it’s something that is such a low barrier to entry in many ways, that people really advanced can still benefit from the program, but complete beginners can also benefit from the program.

 

Jake BolyJake Boly

That’s awesome. You’re talking parallels, when you guys decided to keep it a little bit more simplistic with the approach, do you remember what sparked that and the motivation behind that? I definitely agree that most folks just need to lift and follow a consistent program with progressive overload. What changed the tide?

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

Ryan was working with developers to build it on the back end. It honestly came from a technical frustration with building it. I felt like we were wasting time. Yeah, in a business sense, but also wasting time that we weren’t serving anyone by sitting on it.

 

I wanted to get something out there so that we weren’t just…At the time, we were still coaching clients for higher prices, and doing more one-on-one technique coaching for more serious lifters, more advanced in the powerlifting world.

 

We got to the point where I was like, “We’re not helping anyone by sitting on this.” Of course, we weren’t making any money by sitting on it from a business perspective.

 

It was a good combination of having enough business sense and having enough sense to bring us back to our mission, which is to get more people involved in strength. Luckily, it was so frustrating to continue that project and it was wasting so much time, that doing something much more approachable — from the building side of it, and also approachable for the client-side — made sense for us.

Jake BolyJake Boly

Got it. Something that I think is really cool too about Stronger By The Day is the community feel of it. Everyone’s following the same program almost. It’s like everyone can lean on each other and talk about the week, and like, “God, this week sucks.”

 

There’s so much volume, or like, “Oh, that tee load is really nice.” How has that helped you understand the strength of Stronger By The Day, when it comes to community-based approaches towards fitness?

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

I think that’s always been a huge part, whether on my page or on my YouTube channel. Now, I have my own private gym. That’s the kind of environment we want to create, is that everyone’s welcome, regardless of strength level.

 

Obviously, that takes some programming insight, with auto-regulation and teaching lifters RPE and helping them understand their top sets and how to auto-regulate the program that everyone is getting for their experience.

 

It does take some teaching. I think that’s great because the more people know, the closer that they can get. It is exciting when people are comprehending more complex strength applications.

 

When we all connect via Facebook group, people in my comments, whenever I address Stronger By The Day members are always in there, even when it’s not in our group. It is cool to see how close everyone is. They celebrate each other’s wins, which is exactly the kind of gym that I guess I grew up in when I first started lifting.

 

The reason my company is called Strong Strong Friends is because I probably wouldn’t have continued lifting, if it weren’t for the friends and relationships that I made in the gym that I was lifting at. I did want to put that on a line.

 

As I started talking about my gym, earlier on in my career, I realized that not every gym is that way. Not everyone feels welcome. Not everyone feels like everyone else was friendly. I did want to have my little corner of the Internet be a place where it was really about strength and friendship.

Jake BolyJake Boly

Awesome. When it comes to the community-based approach to and stuff, what are the demographics like? Have you noticed? Like, it’s a varied community, or what are the demographics of Stronger By The Day?

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

I’d say, it’s mostly female. I’d say, it’s about 80 percent female, 20 percent male. We do try to continue to be inclusive for our men. Even my company’s mission is “To get a barbell on every woman’s hands.” I find myself, at times, trying to become more inclusive.

 

As our world is changing, my mission isn’t just to get the barbell in women’s hands. I also have to think about people who necessarily don’t identify as women, or in between the spectrum of male and female.

 

Our world is changing, and I’m personally trying to learn more about how I can adjust my language to increase inclusively. We do have a pretty ideal client avatar, is a woman who’s over 25. Usually, we get the 25 to 35 range is the most common. At times, we have moms in our group, which is exciting.

 

It is an audience that is growing in age with me. I think they relate to me in many ways because of the age factor. I’m trying to think of how also I can describe her, but there’s still a mix of people.

 

There is a lot of diversity in experience when it comes to lifting. You do see former powerlifters in there a lot. A lot of people, who were my one-on-one clients from five years ago, are still in the group and still run. We do give them extra discounts, so they don’t have to pay the full eight dollars. [laughs]

 

It is cool to see people that I’ve watched progress over time and compete in powerlifting meets and consider themselves and be very serious lifters, in a sport sense, now running Stronger By The Day.

Jake BolyJake Boly

That’s awesome. Something you said in there is really interesting to me, and that’s how you’ve progressed over the last few years when it comes to building your business, building your community, and building the following that you’ve had, who are now growing with you, to your statement, where it’s like, you want to get a barbell in every woman’s hands.

 

When you first started training, did you notice any trends when it comes to that ideal with the general public versus now?

 

Do you have any thoughts on the complexities of the societal norms behind the logic of, “Oh, barbell training is not for everybody, it’s just for the dedicated powerlifter.” Or, “The bird not much [indecipherable 12:25] in the gym.” How do you navigate that? I feel it’s definitely had to have been an ever-changing process.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

 To be honest with you, I do now live in a sheltered environment, because it’s one that I’ve created where everyone I know knows what I do. When I first started, I did experience, I think everyone who first gets interested in lifting, men and women, do experience some cultural or societal pressure to not lift.

 

I talked about this a little bit on my Instagram stories and did polls. Something like 70 to 80 percent of women said that someone in their life told them not to lift for whatever reason. Then even 45 percent of men said that someone in their life told them not to lift for whatever reason.

 

It’s so funny because my point in explaining that and pulling them was that injuries are far more likely to happen in organized sports or team sports or even something like running. Whereas, in resistance training, injuries aren’t as common as those. That was my point.

 

Then people started messaging me ridiculous things, that their mom or their grandmother who…As the world changes, sometimes the older generations don’t get hit. I was getting all these crazy reasons. I did that poll to see, and I was surprised to see how many men also got the same resistance. Women aren’t alone in that fact.

 

It was eye-opening because I do live in this kind of sheltered life, where I’m talking about strength all day, every day. I do forget that when I first started…A lot of the women and men who are interested in getting stronger do experience a lot of social pressure not to better themselves and not to lift.

 

With that, I have made a lot of videos to help educate the general public on why lifting is so important for women’s health.

 

Things to consider, like in this conversation, one of the big concerns was prolapse of the pelvic floor. Maybe you’re lifting a dumbbell, isn’t going to cause prolapse in that way. It is a concern, and it is a reason to continue talking about women’s health and lifting and how they go hand-in-hand.

 

I’m always considering how people are feeling comfortable in the gym, too, and how they can have more conversations about why they’re doing it, to motivate them, and also help those conversations.

Jake BolyJake Boly

I really like that. Going off of that. Do you have any tips for the beginner, it doesn’t matter, man or woman, who is getting that outside resistance when they started training? Let’s say they haven’t found their community yet, they haven’t joined the Stronger By The Day. They haven’t found their niche of what they like to do most, and they’re getting all this push back.

 

Do you have any tips for internalizing motivation to continue doing that or having conversations with the people who are giving them push back? I think that’s really tough, especially for a beginner who is having somebody close to them be like, “Oh, you shouldn’t be doing that,” to continue doing it. You have to have a very strong intent to continue.

 

Do you have any tips or experiences with folks that you worked with before that have shared stories about dealing with that?

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

That’s a really good question. In that case, knowledge is power, and being able to talk about and understand why you’re doing something is important in helping other people understand it.

 

My best advice would be to try to just have a conversation, and realize that some people will never understand. Set boundaries in your relationships. Also, remember that the number one reason for getting strong is for your overall health.

 

It helps your bones get stronger, which is especially important for women. It fights brittle bone disease and osteoporosis. It’s improving your proprioception and balance and coordination, will help you later in life. When you come back to the overall health benefits that you can get from it, maybe that is a case for helping other people understand.

 

Knowledge is power. Unfortunately, when you’re first starting and experiencing, you’re not just getting resistance on what you’re doing and whether or not you should be doing it, you’re getting people who want you to lift, telling you to do 80 million different things as well.

 

It’s a tough spot to be in but try to find a community, if you can, because that is really what I’ve always done, and understanding my own goals and what I wanted to do as well.

 

Jake BolyJake Boly

Do you have any tips for those who might be looking for a community but don’t know where to start? Should you look for a community that has a similar goal? Should you look for a community that has a similar skill level? Should you go off of feeling of what you are perceiving of a community that you have found? Do you have any tips there?

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

Yeah. I’ve always said that I think barbell gyms, powerlifting gyms, and weightlifting gyms are great places because, although you are not jumping in there with people at your skill level, if you’re feeling confident enough to learn from others, that’s a great place to get miles ahead of where you’d be otherwise.

 

That was what was so great with when I started lifting. A lot of people were doing their first meet and some other lifters had already competed several times in the sport, so I got to learn from the lifters who had more training age. I got to also bond with people who were competing for the first time.

 

I do recommend trying to find some sort of barbell-specific gym even if you’re not interested in powerlifting competitively. It is just a great place to be around people who are so focused on technique, and form, and programming that you’d be able to learn a ton rather than being the sole person that’s deadlifting at your 24-Hour Fitness.

 

There’s nothing wrong with that, but it is nice to be around other people who understand what you’re doing.

Jake BolyJake Boly

Outside of finding that gym — for example, where I’m at right now, at Missouri with my parents, there isn’t a barbell gym that’s closer than 45 minutes. If I was looking for a community — let’s say online — and I had a home gym, do you have any tips for navigating the endless outlets?

 

There are just so many communities that it can almost be overwhelming. Do you have any tips for putting the feelers into different communities and seeing which vibe’s best with you? It’s a little bit easier to do in person, as opposed to just perceiving what people are putting out there.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

Absolutely, I’d look for — there are so many articles out there and usually those articles or those videos do have a community attached to them. Honestly follow your favorite YouTuber, or Instagram person, or social media influencer, whoever.

 

A lot of times certified coaches are social media influencers now, which is great. Follow them and see what their community is talking about and if you can connect with a certain tone of voice, try to follow that down the rabbit hole.

 

I know now there are a lot of communities for minorities now. You have communities that are actively trying to serve a very specific person, which is great, because then it continues to make everyone feel welcome in their own group to where they feel comfortable. They know that people can relate with them in that group.

 

I’d recommend trying to find information. You’re not going to love every coach’s tone of voice and you’re not going to love every coach’s…Some coaches are dry and all about the science, which is great in many ways. Maybe you need someone more like me, who tries to make it very approachable.

 

It all depends on what you’re looking for and who you connect with. The cool thing about the Internet is that you can then go down a rabbit hole, and hopefully continue to find more things that you’re connected with.

Jake BolyJake Boly

I love that. It’s prioritizing what you want most. Seeing who is putting that out there and then almost reverse engineering it. Looking into what they’ve built, who’s following it. Then maybe even reaching out to folks, who are following their program or within the community and asking them questions.

 

A lot of coaches can be a little bit hard to reach at times. I really like that. It’s really cool that you can reverse engineer it, almost, and do a ton of research in a little time and figure out probably if it’s a good fit or not for you.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

Absolutely.

Jake BolyJake Boly

When it comes to next missions for getting barbells in everybody’s hands, what’s next? What do you think needs to happen in the industry to help push the inclusivity further? I feel if you ran those polls, when you first started, those probably would have been a lot more drastic.

 

It’s been really cool to see the strength sports industry transform and get a little bit more mainstream, in the sense of how the general public perceive strength sports and the people who are deemed as hard-ohs within their communities.

 

Do you have any ideas of what needs to happen next to continue the idea? Education is continually evolving, but what else when it comes to social media, could help folks not have necessarily a poor perception or feel like it’s not for everybody?

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

One thing that we’re working on is a new…We’re calling it an intensive. That might be ambitious, but I feel there still is a little bit of a disconnect between the person who trains only with free weights or machines and then someone who’s barbell training.

 

There’s a big confidence step that you need to overcome before you can finally get there. Although a lot of people do help with that, I feel there’s not a plan or a program.

 

That is one of the things that our team is building to really help someone who’s a complete noob get to intermediate level with guidance. I went to intermediate level in training age, and I guess strength, but I didn’t know what I was doing the entire time.

 

I’m sure I could have had a far better progression if I had a more clear path to follow.

 

We’ve tried our best to make our program as approachable as possible, but we’re still missing something with getting people who are afraid of the barbell, or not quite ready in their — and overcoming that confidence hump.

Jake BolyJake Boly

I love that. That’s difficult.

 

I’m just thinking back to when I started. Going to my first gym experience — I was strong and athletic growing up. I played hockey. When I would go to my community gym and I didn’t know how to barbell back squat, I’d be like, “Fuck [laughs] that.”

 

“I’m not going to that rack with all these big guys.”

 

That’s tough, I really like that.

 

I think that is a very interesting aspect that a lot of people miss, especially — we see some of these very big-name coaches, for example, who are big at barbell sports.

 

I think they sometimes take for granted that not everybody is ready to perform what they’re doing, or follow the programs they’re doing, because there is such a bigger mental aspect at play there.

 

Yeah, wow. That’s a big question. I didn’t want to task you with that, because I don’t know if we could sell that question in this little time frame we have.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

Definitely not. It’s definitely a work in progress too. We’re lucky enough to be able to work with other very smart coaches to help make sure that we’re covering all our bases with that program and that task.

 

When I first started, and I was specifically coaching for platform coaching, so I specifically working with powerlifters to get them to their first or future meets. I had a seminar. I was doing a seminar tour that was focused on powerlifters, and so I was already working with people who were at a more advanced level.

 

I did a fundraiser seminar and donated all the — what’s the word? — all the payments that we got from the attendees straight to the host.

 

We had a more diverse group, and that was a point where I realized people who were following me and interested in what I was doing and interested in health and fitness don’t yet know how to hip hinge, or how to squat with just a kettlebell, or with no weight at all.

 

That was, years ago, the first interest in wanting to dial things back a little bit and not be so hyper-focused in teaching someone how to best maximize their arch on the bench press.

 

That’s a interesting conversation to have for me, but I always come back to the mission — is to get more people involved in barbell training. That’s the goal, and I need to teach people more basics.

Jake BolyJake Boly

I actually want to talk about something with that. I think it’s a little difficult to find coaches that walk both ways. I think you’re unique because you can talk the talk with more advanced topics, but also circle back and be inclusive for the beginner.

 

I’m curious on your thoughts on how, as the industry as a whole, we can better approach the logic of — to your point of — the intensive of getting folks comfortable with just moving more and just trying out different movements. I think understanding that when you’re a beginner, your form is going to be crap, and it’s OK.

 

It doesn’t lead to an instant injury. It just leads to being a little bit more proprioceptive with how you move and how you adapt.

 

I guess my question [laughs] for you in this roundabout spiel of words is, what is the conversation that needs to happen next when it comes to helping bridge the gap between the more serious coaches who talk shit on some of the more basic people, who put out that slide workouts on Instagram and so forth, and the folks who are more trying to hit to the general public?

 

For the advanced coach, it’s like, “Where can we meet in the middle? What’s that conversation that needs to be had?” Because it’s always a tough thing to talk about because, at the end of the day, the example that comes to my head is the barbell back squat.

 

It’s a fantastic movement, but it’s not the only squat variation that will get you strong and get you moving in the right direction.

 

That’s the conversations that need to be had. When it comes to bridging that gap is understanding and knowing that there’s a middle ground. Do you have any thoughts on where that conversation can even start and helping each side see each other’s point?

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

Unfortunately, a lot of the gym hoarders or coaches that look down on other types of movement, I’ve been that coach before, I’ve been that athlete before where I think I have it all figured out and I’m just not experienced enough to see different sides of things.

 

I guess we can find solace in the fact that someone critiquing a movement like a sliders’ workout, which is so hard, those sliders are so difficult. I think people who have been forced to train at home lately have learned that very quickly.

 

The slider hamstring curl is something that we had programmed yesterday. That’s the hardest movement that we have in that entire week of programming, for me at least. [laughs] Maybe that says a lot about my own hamstring strength.

 

I think when you see someone who has such disdain for a particular choice that you made or a particular style of exercise that you prefer, then you know you can be happy knowing that that person is most likely an idiot and the fact that they can’t understand why you would want to do something, whether it be for a strength reason or just a preference reason.

 

What are you going to do about people like that? I still think there’s, I guess…Sorry, I feel like I’ve lost my train of thought. I don’t know if I answered your question at all.

Jake BolyJake Boly

No, you said it a lot more eloquently than I did. Because it’s such a big topic and it’s so hard to accurately convey in a few sentences that it’s difficult to discuss. It’s like the two extremes. How do you argue with somebody who is not even willing to see the bigger context or picture of what’s happening?

 

That’s part of an issue with why a lot of people get intimidated. Because you see some of these more idealistic strength athletes who do talk shit on other movements and other ways to lift…and it’s intimidating. They don’t think that’s cool, so that’s definitely not good then, but that’s not really helping anybody at that point.

 

It’s important for folks who are in that middle ground to understand that there’s always a bigger picture and there’s not just one way to do it. Talking to the circle right now with each other.

 

Oh, my goodness.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

I know what you mean. There are definitely different camps even within that where certain strength coaches think one way and then others think the other way, whether that be for form or programming, and so on.

 

There’s so many things that we can disagree on, but I would hope that the average good coach and personal trainer always comes back to, “I want to do whatever I can to get my clients healthy.” I’ll even say there’s maybe some snobbery in my own mission, which is to get a barbell in every woman’s hands.

 

I like barbell training, and that’s what I specialize in, and that’s what I can really help people in, but if you don’t want to, you can sub all the barbell movements for a kettlebell and I’d be just as happy that you’re doing that in here, in training.

 

Hopefully, all people are in this business because they want to help people get stronger and healthier. Crossing our fingers on that one. [laughs]

Jake BolyJake Boly

We hope. We hope. That’s totally what I meant by that and it’s an interesting topic, to say the least. It’s funny I feel as you grow as a coach, you begin to see the bigger picture more and more. Because when I started, I was so into powerlifting. I would look down on anybody who didn’t barbell train or didn’t do squat deadlift bench.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

Me too.

Jake BolyJake Boly

Obviously, the barbell is the focal point of my coaching, but equally, if I have a client who’s like, “I don’t like the barbell squat,” I’m like, “That’s awesome.” You got some variations to get you stronger. It’s like seeing the bigger picture. I really love that. As you’ve grown too, the bigger picture is only becoming more and more clear to you.

 

I think that’s all we got for today. I appreciate the time, Meg. Where can people follow you? Where can they find you? I know we’ve talked a lot about your program, Stronger By The Day, plug, but where else can we follow you.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

I appreciate it. Viewers can follow me, I am found in most places on the Internet @MegSquats. Mostly on YouTube and Instagram. I post a lot of workouts, technique tips. I’ll post a lot of training with myself right now.

 

I’m starting to train with my eight-year-old brother, so that’s been an adventure that I’m sharing with. I’m also studying for the CSCS exam. I don’t know if you saw that. It’s hard. [laughs]

 

Jake BolyJake Boly

That’s not an easy one. Not to scare you, but my buddy from college — and he’s probably going to hate that I mentioned this — has taken it three times and has missed it every single time by one question.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

No.

Jake BolyJake Boly

[laughs] I am confident that is not going to be you, don’t worry. It’s not as hard as people perceive it as.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

It has a 56 percent pass rate. It’s pretty hard.

Jake BolyJake Boly

I don’t know. I’m trying to be motivational, I guess.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

It’s OK. I’m trying my best to prepare myself with every material that I can. Of course, I have other personal training certifications and certifications for helping powerlifters specifically. This is the best one to get.

 

If I’m going to start training with my little brother and considering training with youth athletes, I want to make sure that I have this one specifically. I am starting to share some of what I’m learning on my stories.

 

If there any other coaches listening that are interested in taking the test, maybe you might find something helpful on there, but so far I’ve been taking my practice tests and I’m failing them, too.

Jake BolyJake Boly

 

No, don’t say that.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

I’m just taking quizzes right now through an app that I’m using. The exercise science portion of it does have other subjects that I haven’t yet covered. I’ve finished chapter two so far. The reason I told Instagram was so that I would continue with my studying because I’ve tried to do this study for it several times and always gave up after chapter three or something.

Jake BolyJake Boly

The social accountability is good. Which app are you using, by the way?

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

I had originally the CSCS Pocket Prep, I think they call it? They recently updated that to this fitness prep app, which is pretty helpful. I can organize my quizzes, that I’m taking by subject. Right now, I’m focusing on the exercise science fits, since I think that’ll be the one that I struggle with mostly. Here, let me show you my stats, 60 percent.

 

I’m trying my best.

Jake BolyJake Boly

I was going to say, the Pocket Prep app helped me immensely. I did the same thing, where I limited the subject. When I started I was still in my master’s program, I was like, “Oh, how the fuck am I failing this? What the hell?” Just repetition, repetition, repetition with that. I don’t envy that for you, right now.

 

Thank you so much for the time. It was a pleasure, I always love catching up. The next time we chat, I want to talk more about the CSCS, and training youth athletes. I think that’s a hot topic that needs a lot more discussion around it. Thank you so much, Meg.

Meg GallagherMeg Gallagher

Thank you.

About Jake Boly, CSCS

Jake holds a Master's in Sports Science and a Bachelor's in Exercise Science. Jake formerly served as BarBend's Fitness and Training Editor.

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