Ep 368 - Sheffield 2025 Champ Kjell Bakkelund @IronCulturePodcast

Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago

In this episode, powerlifter Kjell Bakkelund shares his journey, strategic weight management, and insights into longevity and performance in powerlifting. Discover how he overcame setbacks, optimized nutrition, and maintained motivation over a 19-year career.

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Chapters
00:00 Introduction
07:57 The Weight Cut Experience and Its Challenges
15:07 Strategic Deception and Preparation for Sheffield
20:20 Reflections on Training and Dieting
25:29 Kjell's Competitive History and Evolution
37:10 Comparing Past and Present Strength Levels
44:09 The Turning Point: A Podium Decision
49:17 Nutrition and Performance: A Game Changer
56:41 Mindset Shifts: Embracing the Journey
01:02:11 The Importance of Flexibility in Dieting

Ep 368 - Sheffield 2025 Champ Kjell Bakkelund

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$Ep 277- Menstrual Cycle Training Roundtable (w/Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple & Dr. Kim SantaBarbara) Fresh off of their successful doctoral defenses, Lauren and Kim join iron culture to discuss all things menstrual-cycle related for lifters! Dr. Helms had the pleasure of mentoring Kim, who recently completed her PhD at AUT, in which she surveyed and monitored the menstrual cycle symptoms of resistance-training women, and also led an intervention of mindfulness-based yoga to see the impact on menstrual cycle symptom severity. These findings are complemented by Lauren’s PhD research, recently completed at Stu Phillips lab at McMaster University, where she looked at muscle protein fractional responses to resistance training in women during different menstrual cycle phases. Covering both the applied and mechanistic side of the equation, this Roundtable discussion led by the Erics gives you the cutting edge low down on whether or not menstrual cycle phased based training is all that it’s hyped up to be. 00:00 Introduction to a streamlined operation without any delays 04:00 Our guests describe their research MASS Research Review https://massresearchreview.com/ MASS Office Hours https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCFcHTO44O8d_P4-rlH5siw 15:26 Covering some background topics before jumping into the topic Colenso-Semple 2023 Current evidence shows no influence of womens menstrual cycle phase on acute strength performance or adaptations to resistance exercise training https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37033884/ 27:47 Menstrual-cycle based training 39:03 Do we need to control for the menstrual cycle in exercise science research? 45:30 Kim breaks down her PhD Research and a quick discussion on anovulatory cycles 1:02:14 What do women do when their menstrual cycle doesn’t align with their competition schedule? Ways of managing and alleviating symptoms 1:14:48 The Chasteberry (vitex agnus-castus) and a Trexler tangent for the future 1:20:32 Caution against fixating on the menstrual cycle and Lauren’s upcoming research outputs 1:25:03 Closing out on this topic and where to find our guests Kim: @kimberlysantabarbara https://www.instagram.com/kimberlysantabarbara/?hl=en Lauren: @laurencs1 https://www.instagram.com/laurencs1/?hl=en$

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