AMA: Megan Gallagher AKA MegSquats, creator of Stronger By The Day and Before The Barbell!

[coolbluestar]

@noamsrai Wish I could but it's been a minute and thinking back I suspect it was in her stories, sorry! But she's absolutely said everything that was in it right here (and more), so you're not missing out.

 

[noamsrai]

@coolbluestar Awesome! Thanks for checking!

 

[wallflower1104]

@susanedgar37 Do you plan to stay very hands on with Stronger by the Day long term? Will it continue to reflect your own training?

 

[nicole1997]

@susanedgar37 Hi Meg (again)!

I’m trying to build up muscle but I’m doing it from my home gym and am limited on space and cash to put into my gym equipment.

What are the best beginner pieces of equipment that I’ll get the best bang for my buck in my home gym (and increments)?

 

[kentuckyblue]

@nicole1997 How fun! Decent barbell, rack, and bench (bonus points for adjustable, but not needed!). Plates down to 2.5lbs (fractionals are nice but also not needed). We also had a cheap ~$150 plate loaded lat pull down / row combo that we used for all of our cable work. Finally, we had a set of plate loadable DBs, but they were not my favorite. Powerblocks or similar would be cool but can get pricey. I'd say plates and DBs are one of the easiest things to buy used and save some money.

And as an aside, we maaay have some new packages releasing with REP Fitness coming soon, as well as a giveaway on my IG tomorrow!!

 

[benedictusandy]

@susanedgar37 Hi Meg! What’s your view on bulking and cutting cycles?

For context: I am doing stronger by the day and want to get stronger but also shed/recomp some extra pounds that have crept up over the pandemic (nothing major- maybe 10 in total). I am making sure to focus on protein intake, hit my steps ans do my workouts but am not really cutting out any junk or counting calories, because I don’t really want to at this point. My hope is that this taken together this approach will result in the physical changes I want over time, without the hassle of counting calories and not eating pizza every few weeks. Is that realistic?

 

[nicole1997]

@susanedgar37 Hi Meg! Thanks for doing this.

I’ve been on your Instagram page and noticed that I do the butt wink thing for sure - absolutely during squats but I also think my form for RDLs (aiming to hit my glutes as I’m super quad dominant) isn’t great.

Where can I get the best form breakdown to ensure I’m doing my exercises PROPERLY?

 

[anytimeofday44]

@susanedgar37 Hi! How has the fitness influencer scene changed in the past few years? And how has powerlifting specifically changed?

 

[kentuckyblue]

@anytimeofday44 I think the barriers to entry to creating content have really been reduced -- even filming on your phone is better quality than most vlogging cameras that were popular in 2014-15ish! Beyond that, it's easier to share content and gain traction with platforms like TikTok, which has been awesome as far as new opportunities to create engaging education resources.

TBH I'm not a great resource on the influencer side. I haven't actively sought any sponsors in a few years, and dropped my last recurring sponsor last year. The cool thing I guess is that now we get to experience influencer marketing from the brand side, and hopefully learn from my experience (and my struggles, haha).

Powerlifting continues to evolve. Federation splits, new athletes, new rules, new weight classes, and the weights just keep getting heavier. It's incredible to see how the sport continues to evolve and the depth keeps improving.

I like this question but don't totally know how to answer it haha. I'm sure fitness influencing will continue to adapt and change too. Trends will always come and go, I plan on just staying in my little dark corner of the internet lifting heavy weights and preaching the merits of barbell training.

 

[anytimeofday44]

@kentuckyblue Aw! I love your corner! You're one of my inspirations from when I first started lifting back in 2015. A lot of the faces of the sport have changed since then but I'm really happy that you're still creating amazing content and encouraging women to lift.

 

[doctorpharm]

@susanedgar37 Hi Meg! Love your program, it’s a great way to work in compound lifts but still have variety and keep me interested in actually sticking to a program (it’s the first program in years i’ve actually consistently been able to stick to). Seconding another user, will you be working on programs that do only 3x a week for busy night shift workers that have to squeeze in workouts between shifts? Really appreciate your work!

 

[jhufstetler2]

@susanedgar37 Hi Meg! Will you ever come out with a 2x or 3x / week program? What is the best way to modify SBTD for people who can't workout 4x a week?

 

[kentuckyblue]

@jhufstetler2 Gave some detailed answers in a thread above, but at a high level...

1. We should have more frequency options live on the app within the next 6-12 months (3x, 4x, and 5x per week)
2. Best way to modify is to prioritize any of your primary lifts so in each session, you're hitting 1-2 barbell lifts and then wrapping with a giant set or two. 2x per week is a pretty easy drop since this current cycle has Primary Squat + Secondary OHP; Primary DL + Secondary Bench; Secondary Squat + Primary OHP; and Secondary DL + Primary Bench as our main four days. So pick the lifts that most align with your goals, prioritizing the primary if possible. If the training is back to back days then I'd split as one day upper accessories, one day lower accessories, and if they're a couple days apart, then I'd try to do 1-2 accessories to failure for upper & lower each day.

Hope this helps!

 

[snowshard14]

@susanedgar37 Hi Meg!
Some of your videos helped me out when I first started lifting. Do you think women’s strength standards underestimate women?

 

[kentuckyblue]

@snowshard14 Hm, that's an interesting question. I'm not too familiar with strength standards, but I imagine anything that is percentile- or result-derived from a federation or competition may be misrepresentatively low of women's strength capacity just based on historically lower involvement. But I'll have to look into this more!

 

[pastormoazzam]

@susanedgar37 What advice do you have for a teenage girl (or any youth) who is relatively early in their lifting lifetime?

 

[kentuckyblue]

@pastormoazzam If you have big athletic dreams: being a generalist is in your best interest. Don't get hyper specific in a sport until late high school, that includes lifting. Use lifting to help develop muscle and strength in other sports and interests.

People often forget that Lebron James played High School football until his junior year. Great athletes play multiple sports and sustain fewer injuries.

 

[ericborden]

@susanedgar37 Hey Meg! Love your program and have been following it for a few years now. You’re one of my favorite people! Thanks for taking time to answer questions today.
1. Do you ever anticipate offering different style programs within your app or website? I find myself enjoying some cycles more than others and think it would be awesome if we could choose a hypertrophy/strength/bro split/etc cycle on the times that fit our goals the best. Editing to add that I’d be more than willing to pay more for this - or something like a tiered membership would be awesome.
2. Is a dedicated reddit thread (like the fb and discord) in the cards at all?
3. How is Emerick doing?! I don’t see him in your stories much and curious if he’s still loving it!

 

[kentuckyblue]

@ericborden Woohoo! Happy to have you on board already for YEARS (how crazy is it that SBD is over 3 years old now?!). Great questions, will answer them as numbered:

1. This is definitely on our medium term radar, and we should have a solution set up within the next 6-12 months. Framework is already designed and the staging & back end infrastructure is in process, with the programming & content already in great shape too. The short answer is yes, but a little bit more on our terms than other program offerings. The direction we're moving in will allow for more high level goal-specific cycles to be selected for each user, with flexibility on things like frequency, timing (e.g. 9-wks out vs. 25-wks out from a meet have big differences), and more. The most important thing is that we will be doing everything we can to expand the capability and services without having to introduce higher cost options. There certainly may be modest price increases for new members in the future, but A) all members will always be grandfathered in at their current rates), and B) our brand mission is to keep training resources as accessible as possible, which only comes with affordability. So we'd rather make the app & programming more flexible for everyone than start spending more resources on a small subset who can afford to pay more.
2. A subreddit was actually in consideration before Discord, believe it or not! The nice thing about discord is that it's easier to self-moderate across discussion types & topics, so having something like a Customer Service channel or supplement channel makes it easy for the right members of our team to monitor accordingly. With that said, we'd certainly keep other communities on the table including a Subreddit. Member engagement is one of our biggest priorities this year, from in-person events to online community building. We're pretty happy with the direction of the "Strong Strong" part, but have some room to go on the "Friends" side of things, haha.
3. He's doing pretty good! My dad's family just moved so they're actually closer to the gym now which is great. He seems to have ups and downs with interest in training, which is natural. Sometimes we forget that he's only 10 because he's so mature in the gym, but he's still just a kid. His goal for the past couple weeks has been about accountability and taking ownership of his own preparation -- letting your hunger hurt a training session isn't a great excuse when you have a stocked pantry and all the resources at your disposal! It's been going great so far. And I think we found a novice meet in August that he maaay be interested in doing too, which would be a lot of fun I think (/hope!).

 

[ericborden]

@kentuckyblue Thanks so much for answering! I saw a different answer of yours about the sweat app and that’s close to what I was envisioning in the future. It’s incredibly admirable that you’re doing everything to keep costs low and make your programs accessible to everyone. And super cool that you’re upfront about it all!
We would definitely love a dedicated subreddit! I’m trying to figure out the discord so I can get rid of the facebook for good. Also really glad to hear Emerick is
still lifting. I think it’s super cool what you guys are doing with him. Keep us updated if he does that meet!!