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Home > Westside Barbell > Joe Kenn: There Are No Absolutes in Strength Training (Full Episode)
Podcast: Westside Barbell
Episode:

Joe Kenn: There Are No Absolutes in Strength Training (Full Episode)
Category: Sports & Recreation
Duration: 01:50:12
Publish Date: 2026-05-12 18:38:37
Description:

Joe "Big House" Kenn coached strength in the NFL for nearly a decade. He sits down with Tom Barry for four decades of lessons.

From a guard at Wake Forest to leading strength programs at Boise State, Utah, Arizona State, and Louisville, Joe Kenn has built one of the most decorated coaching careers in the NSCA. He created the Tier System, served as head strength and conditioning coach for the Carolina Panthers from 2011 to 2019, and is the only coach to have won both the NSCA Collegiate Strength Coach of the Year and the NFL Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year. He now runs Big House Power and works with elite strongman athletes including Brian Shaw and Tom Evans.

In this episode, Joe and Tom dig into how strong is strong enough at the highest levels, how NIL and the transfer portal have rewired strength coaching, how Joe interpreted Louie Simmons rather than copying him, practice-based evidence vs evidence-based practice, why he stopped programming power cleans for three years at Arizona State, peak velocity over average velocity, and why the strength coach often has to be the sacrificial lamb in a team sport setting.

TOPICS COVERED
00:00 What the public misunderstands about strength at the top level
05:35 Joe's background: Wake Forest to the Carolina Panthers
10:41 How NIL and the transfer portal changed strength coaching
28:58 No absolutes, and how Joe interpreted Louie Simmons
32:00 Dynamic effort, compensatory acceleration, and peak velocity
36:00 When three quarters of the NFL trained one set to failure
41:00 Lineage, principles, and "absorb, modify, apply"
49:00 The apprenticeship problem: 32,000 grads, 14,000 jobs
1:13:00 Why Joe stopped programming power cleans for three years
1:30:00 Why the strength coach has to be the sacrificial lamb
1:36:00 What Louie Simmons actually contributed to Joe's tier system

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Instagram: @bighousepower
Website: https://bighousepower.com/

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