Culture, Buy-in and Stronger Athletes with Jeremy Carlson, Doug Larson, Travis Mash & Dr. Mike Lane #840
Barbell Shrugged
Doug Larson
4.7 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, Doug Larson, Travis Mash, and Dr. Mike Lane sit down with Center College strength coach Jeremy Carlson to unpack how he built a high-functioning strength and conditioning culture at a small Division III school with limited staff, limited time, and one shared weight room. Jeremy explains how he went from being a former soccer player and CrossFit gym manager to launching Center's strength program at just 24 years old. What started as a scrappy operation with seven double-sided racks and hundreds of athletes eventually turned into one of the most organized and culture-driven systems in college strength and conditioning.
The conversation centers on Jeremy's unconventional model: instead of training athletes only by team, Center athletes train in mixed-group sessions across the day, with different sports sharing the same space while following sport-specific programming. That system not only solved a logistics problem, it helped create a true department-wide culture. Jeremy breaks down his three-part mission: prepare athletes for sport, build character, and give them the tools to become lifelong fitness enthusiasts. He also explains why simple programming still works incredibly well for most college athletes, especially when they are still relatively novice in the weight room. Rather than chasing complexity, he focuses on getting athletes stronger with basic lifts, teaching movement well, and making conditioning and change-of-direction work more specific to the sport.
The deeper takeaway from this episode is that great coaching is not just about sets and reps. Jeremy shares how consistency, standards, buy-in, and real human development matter more than flashy programming. He talks about teaching athletes to manage their own training, empowering upperclassmen to lead, and creating an environment where a golfer can confidently tell a lacrosse player to get off her assigned rack. The result is a system that develops stronger athletes, better habits, and more capable adults. If you care about coaching, leadership, culture building, or how to create excellence with constraints, this episode delivers a practical blueprint.
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| 0:00.0 | Shrug family, Doug Larson here. |
| 0:02.0 | And this week on Barbell Strug, we're joined by Jeremy Carlson. He's the head strength and condition coach at Center College. He's built a very impressive performance system there, essentially from scratch. And in this episode, Jeremy breaks down how he trains more than 600 athletes across 24 varsity sports with minimal staff and a shared weight room. We talk a lot about the relationship side of coaching, how to build real buy-in from athletes, coaches, and administrators, as well as his focus on creating not just bigger, faster, and stronger athletes and competitors, but also how to build high character, high integrity, human beings as well. So if you're a coach, athlete, or leader, and you want to create a culture of high character and high performance. This episode is for you. |
| 0:37.9 | Enjoy the show. |
| 0:38.9 | Welcome to Barbo Strug. |
| 0:42.1 | I'm Doug Walshian here with coach Travis Matt, Dr. Mike Lane. |
| 0:45.1 | And as you put it a minute ago, a lowly strength coach, Jeremy Carlson. |
| 0:49.7 | Welcome to the show, my friend. |
| 0:50.9 | Thank you. |
| 0:51.7 | I appreciate you guys having me on. |
| 0:53.1 | I've actually been a consumer of this show for years dating you back to my CrossFit Day. So I'm excited to be able to be on here. Oh yeah, man, right on. I actually didn't know that until you just said that just now. So good to have you. Very cool. Dr. Mike Lane, you and Jeremy know each other. You got a little bit of history there. What's the story? |
| 1:14.2 | Yeah, so he and I work together on the Kentucky State Board at the NSA. So we both worked for Dr. Adrian Mortara down at Brea College, and that's how we kind of got to know each other. He hosted the conference over to his facilities before he upgraded, so I'm definitely not going to steal his thunder. so we can talk about all the things he's done |
| 1:25.8 | is kind of literally doing the field of dreams |
| 1:28.0 | building it so they will come over there |
| 1:30.1 | at center. And in all honesty, |
| 1:32.7 | I'm a big fan of how he sets things up as far as organizing it for building the culture and, |
| 1:37.2 | you know, making it in a way that you're getting all the athletes to come together, not the |
| 1:41.7 | individual sports to only care about themselves. But I'm not going to steal his thunder any further than that. |
| 1:47.9 | Yeah, dude, very cool. |
| 1:49.2 | Yeah, as Mike kind of briefly mentioned, you built a very cool program here at that center |
| 1:55.2 | university or college, center college. |
| 1:58.9 | We'll dig in that here in a second, but what's your background? |
| 2:01.6 | How did you get into strength and conditioning and then how'd you find yourself where you are today? |
... |
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