Q. In the last year, I became addicted to a Diet Coke or two per day (I know--Bad girl!) This is my only caffeine for the day but I've now switched to caffeine-free. Anyway, I work out as usual and eat the same but it appears than my subcutaneous fat layer is increasing substantially. Is there anything about this change that could be contributing? Thanks so much.

A. Definitely, caffeine does have lipolytic effects; in other words it helps you lose fat. Plus caffeine in an effervescent medium such as Diet Coke is better absorbed than the one in coffee. Your consumption of caffeine was not excessive. In fact, studies on caffeine consumption showed than caffeine consumers had healthier gallbladders AND had sex on a more frequent basis than people that abstained from caffeine. The people that think caffeine is ultra-dangerous also tend to believe in the astrology of vitamin therapy, genetic blue-print through aura manipulation and other new age bullshit.

So relax and enjoy your Diet Cokes!
A Man of Many Strengths: Coach Kim Goss

by Josh Henkin

Strength coach & writer Kim Goss gives us a glimpse into his world.

There are probably more self-appointed experts in the fitness and strength field than any other. It is sad to see so many people follow the advice of those that have never produced results. However, in the past several years there has been increase exposure of those individuals that actually provide results. This has meant more and more strength coaches, instead of "fitness experts", teaching cutting edge techniques that work! So, in our quest of finding the latest information on strength training, I have sought out the expertise of one of those true experts, Kim Goss.

JH: I've seen your name associated with such strength training celebrities as Paul Chek and Charles Poliquin, but you haven't taken advantage of marketing yourself similarly. Please tell us a little bit about yourself?

KG: I started competitive weightlifting in 1972. At the time I was a teenager working at Bob's Athletic Club, a great hardcore gym in Fremont, California,and for the first several months I was paid in protein powder. I had a blast, especially since I loved protein milkshakes. After graduating from the University of California, Hayward, in 1984, I became a senior editor at Runner's World, where I worked on several fitness magazines, including the women's bodybuilding magazine Strength Training for Beauty. My boss was Laura Dayton, whose brother Mike was a Chi master, professional strongman, bodybuilding contest promoter, and former Mr. America who had roomed with Arnold himself. It was at this time that I started getting into coaching, working with several Olympic lifters and track and field athletes.

In 1987 I became the assistant strength coach at the U.S. Air Force Academy. It was at this time I also started training figure skaters, and a few years later was able to work part time under Dr. Michael Leahy at his clinic. (Leahy is the inventor of ActiveRelease Techniques Treatment)

In the winter of 1994 I moved to Southern California to work for Paul Chek,helping with his seminars and running his office. The following year I moved to Northern California to pursue writing again on a full-time basis with Laura Dayton, who had opened her own writing and publishing business. Laura and I did freelance writing for several fitness magazines, doing a considerable amount of work for Muscle Media, and ghostwriting several books for top fitness and sport celebrities.

Two years ago I moved to Plano, Texas to train figure skaters full time in a 1,000-square-foot private gym I developed from scratch. As for writing, I primarily do freelance articles, mostly profiles of strength coaches and elite athletes who use strength training, and I also edit exercise publications for strength coaches. And if I can put in a plug, if anyone reading this interview knows of top strength coaches or athletic programs that they believe worthy of a feature-length article in Bigger Faster Stronger, please e-mail me at coachkimgoss@aol.com.

JH: One thing that I found very interesting is that you have done much of your writing as a ghostwriter. In today's age of self-promotion, why do you choose not to promote your services?

KG: The main reason I ghostwrite is that the articles are more likely to be read if the persons whose ideas are being presented have their names on the articles. Also, I'm not that concerned about seeing my name in print--at least, not as concerned as my mother is--and I get paid the same whether I ghostwrite an article or put my name on it. Right now I'm doing a lot less ghostwriting because I'm coaching full time, both at my gym and through the Internet.

I would like to add that there are many brilliant coaches out there who have helped me become a better coach and who should have their ideas published but don't necessarily have the requisite writing skills. For example, I worked with Dr. Mike Leahy and saw firsthand what he could do with his Active Release treatment. He had written some technical articles for medical journals, but I believed he deserved wider recognition so I wrote about him in Muscle Media. From that one article Leahy received over 2,000 calls, and I understand it did his business a world of good--Tim Paterson told me that it was the single greatest promotion they've ever had. I look upon that article as my way of saying thanks to Dr. Leahy for helping me with my skating program. But there are many more people I need to thank.

There's Charles Poliquin, Mel Siff, Paul Gagne, Bud Charniga, Paul Chek, Jerry Telle, Don Chu, Al Vermeil, and many other exceptional strength coaching professionals--they've all helped me with my education and have ideas that deserve to be told. I'm not claiming that I've ghostwritten for every one of these individuals (after all, part of the deal of ghostwriting is to stay anonymous) but merely that I helped get their names out to the masses.

From a coaching perspective, I don't need to promote myself. I'm proud to say that here in Texas I've never solicited a single athlete to train with me because my word-of-mouth marketing has been so great. In fact, business is going so well, especially since I train many athletes by e-mail, that I've had to hire three assistants.

JH: Who and what have been major influences on the ways you train your athletes?

KG: That would make a good-sized list, but I'm glad you asked. Jim Schmitz taught me sound Olympic lifting techniques, and I've learned a lot from studying the translated weightlifting methods of the Bulgarians and Russians. I learned enough about the health benefits of weight training from Mike Stone to give me the research ammunition to debate those skeptics of the weightlifting sports, Dr. Kenneth Cooper, Covert Bailey, and the rest. Don Chu is a classy guy who taught me about jump training, and Paul Chek gave me an appreciation for the importance of corrective exercise. I credit Charles Poliquin for some invaluable information about program design, his colleague Paul Gagne for sound information about nutrition, and Mel Siff for his insight into turning strength training research into practical knowledge. As for the psychology of coaching, Jack Braley, my boss at the Air Force Academy, and Jim Schmitz were perfect role models. Oh yes, Don Reed, a former editor for Strength and Health, inspired me to be a writer.

JH: Probably the most popular question that I hear whenever I'm at a seminar like Coach Poliquin's, is "How do I learn all this information?" Do you have any advice for those looking to improve their education in the field of strength and conditioning?

KG: It's been said that there are two types of coaches: "Those who think education is a substitute for experience and those who think experience is a substitute for education." I'm in favor of having it all: In addition to getting sound educational resources, you need to seek out those who are successful and try to learn from them.

For example, I learned Olympic lifting techniques from Jim Schmitz, who could be regarded as the Louie Simmons of Olympic lifting because of his coaching success. Schmitz was the head coach of two Olympic teams, and has personally coached about a dozen Olympians and 3 athletes who have clean-and-jerked over 500 pounds. If you want to learn Olympic lifting, study Schmitz's books, articles and his video, and try to attend his seminars or train with him for a few days. There are also many, many excellent books on all aspects of strength and conditioning that I wish had been available when I started lifting and coaching.

The Internet has provided a lot of educational opportunities for today's strength coach, but it's unfortunate that so much of the material about strength training is continually perverted by writers who are cruel, sarcastic, vulgar and sexist. The newsgroups are the worst in this regard, as many of the contributors are more interested in trying to be humorous by insulting people than in sharing information.

If someone is serious about being a strength coach, that person needs to start working with athletes as soon as possible, even if it's for free. For the first eight years that I trained skaters, I seldom charged anything, and this was one reason I got the opportunity to train so many Olympians.

JH: The field of strength training seems to be very susceptible to trends. For example, functional training and the old Nautilus systems--which, unbelievably, are still used by some professional teams. Why is that?

KG: What you need to understand about marketing fitness to the general public is that emotion is much more important than logic. This is why the American public would only have an interest in Louie Simmons if they thought he was related to Richard Simmons. I remember having to do some truly awful articles about the training advice of Denise Austin and Suzanne Somers, but the fact is these are the so-called "fitness experts" the American public wants to hear from and the magazine and book publishers want to hire me to write about.

Probably the worst thing that happened to strength coaching was the growth of bodybuilding, and I'd also go so far as to say that Arnold has been a negative influence on my profession because he made it OK to act like a jerk in the weightroom. Then there's Mr. Nautilus himself, Arthur Jones. Jones has been instrumental in getting barbells out of gyms and promoting unfounded myths about the dangers of free weights, and in inspiring the HIT people to promote their ideas with bad manners. These factors have contributed to a lot of bad trends in the fitness industry.