Ep 337 - Is There A Crisis In Exercise Science?

Iron Culture

The MASS Crew

Sports & Recreation, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 827 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2025

⏱️ 110 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Join hosts Eric Trexler and Eric Helms as they explore the potential "replication crisis" in exercise science, drawing parallels to the well-documented crisis in psychology. In this episode, they delve into the challenges of replicating research findings, the perils of placing too much confidence in singular studies, the importance of cautious interpretation of new studies, and the value of meta-analyses in understanding true effect sizes. Whether you're a seasoned lifter or new to the world of evidence-based practice, this conversation offers valuable insights into making informed decisions about your training.

Time stamps:
00:00 – Introduction (and Helms’ travel updates)
17:29 - Replication Crisis in Psychology: Discussion on the replication crisis observed in psychology and its implications.
32:45 – What is “replication”
44:36 – Results of “reproducibility project” in exercise science
1:00:04 – Why are replication rates so low in exercise science?
1:27:24 – What does this mean for “evidence-based fitness” and application of exercise science?

Relevant links:
www.massresearchreview.com
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26315443/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40522610/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Iron Culture. It is 7 p.m. Eastern time Monday night, which means it's time for a live episode of Iron Culture presented by Mass, the Mass Research Review. I'm here with a good Dr. Eric Helms, who has been traveling. You actually haven't been on
0:21.2	the show in ages, it feels like, just as we had pre-recorded stuff, and then there's an episode
0:26.7	you weren't on, which is a rarity in the Iron Culture world. So Helms, how are we doing, and how
0:32.7	are your travels? I am doing okay. It was honestly a bit jarring to hear some things that I think frankly disappointed, angered, and maybe broke the hearts of some of the Iron Culture listeners with the front page fitness takeover.
0:49.3	You know, but we've survived worse, as you know. So I'm not letting it get me down because I had a fantastic time over in Europe.
1:01.0	The only downside to it was that I did feel disconnected from the cult, which is why I'm so glad to be back on with you, with them, all of our cultists who join us live on a weekly basis or on each time we have a live episode.
1:16.4	But we had an awesome episode with Steen, Dr. Larson.
1:22.2	All jokes aside, you and Lauren crushed it.
1:24.7	And I think that was a really fun conversation about the science
1:28.4	of attractiveness being cool, being good, and all of that. And yeah, no, Italy and Spain were
1:36.2	amazing. This is the second year I've now done that, or I've had the opportunity to do a seminar
1:42.1	as well as act as a guest judge for WNBF Spain, WNBF Italy.
1:47.9	And this time, it also eventuated into a really cool trip to the TechnoGym HQ in Sizena in Italy,
1:56.7	which, dude, treks, it's like the Google campus, you know.
2:02.3	Yeah, dude, it's a 2,500 employee, really cool spot.
2:07.9	Techno Gym is obviously kind of like aligned with probably the way you and I see fitness.
2:13.2	It's like technology and training.
2:16.8	And the cool thing is if you go all the way back to their history,
2:20.1	the company started in 1983 and their first piece of equipment they released was a hack squat.
2:26.5	Right?
2:27.4	So not only the year I was born, but also they were collaborating with bodybuilders early on.
2:32.9	They obviously become a much larger brand, brand presence.
	...

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