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Muscles and Management
Over the last near decade, Gerry DeFilippo has trained THOUSANDS of athletes from the youth to pro level across all major team-sports.
Gerry started his gym and brand, Challenger Strength, as an ambitious 22 year old still finishing his college degree.
In the time since, he has built his facility and following into a nationally recognized performance company training thousands of athletes both in-person and online.
Gerry brings guests across all areas of sports and performance training, giving the listener inside access to his rolodex of collegiate, world renowned private and professional performance and sports coaches.
If you are looking to improve your own performance OR knowledge of performance/sports training (and learn how to shape your career), Muscles and Management is for you!
Muscles and Management
Episode #236 Reframing Strength, Conditioning, and Sport Culture with Malorie Henderlong
Send us your questions, or thoughts on today's episode!
In this episode of Muscles and Management, Gerry sits down with Malorie Henderlong, Assistant Director of Sports Performance at Auburn University, to discuss her journey through college strength and conditioning, breaking down outdated training mindsets, and creating performance systems that actually serve athletes.
Malorie opens up about her coaching stops at Baylor, UNC, NC State, and now Auburn—detailing how mentorship, trial-and-error, and trusting her gut have shaped her philosophy. She gets into:
- Why the weight room is misunderstood in team sports, especially soccer
- How to build athlete trust, autonomy, and buy-in
- The importance of training for long-term durability over passing fitness tests
- How and why conditioning is still widely misused in the college space
- Why being a great coach also means knowing how to “sell” your ideas with humility
The conversation also explores match-day plus/minus training models, how to structure in-season lifts for high and low-minute players, and why soccer-specific training needs to evolve beyond just running laps and hoping for the best.
Coaches, athletes, and sports staff at every level will benefit from Malorie’s raw honesty, systems thinking, and practical strategies for optimizing performance without sacrificing athlete health or development.
Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro to Malorie and Her Journey Across College Programs
4:06 – Chasing the Right Roles, Not Just Titles
7:08 – Coaching at Auburn and Building Out a Sports Science Department
9:00 – Internships, Mentorship, and Learning from Brutal Feedback
12:11 – Investing in Young Coaches and Paying It Forward
13:52 – Why Some Coaches Still Fear the Weight Room
16:18 – Building Trust with Coaches Through Education and Language
21:24 – Why Strength Training Matters for Team Sport Athletes
25:52 – Transfer to Sport: Acceleration, Decel, and Foundational Strength
29:25 – Biggest Conditioning Mistakes and Outdated Approaches
32:06 – Rethinking “Mental Toughness” and Contextual Fatigue
34:47 – Learn the Sport, Then Reverse Engineer the Training
37:24 – Winning Coach Buy-In Through Relatable Language and Logic
41:05 – When “Learning the Hard Way” Helps Create Buy-In
44:33 – Offseason Conditioning: Play More, Sprint More, Lift More
46:52 – The Problem with Fitness Tests (and What to Do Instead)
51:37 – Misplaced Priorities: Testing vs. Actual Match Readiness
56:34 – Match Day Plus/Minus: In-Season Programming Done Right
1:01:09 – Auto-Regulation, Athlete Autonomy, and Keeping It Simple
1:03:15 – Training in Chaos: From Structured Plans to Afrobeat Sessions
1:06:42 – Match Day Periodization Across Sports
1:08:20 – Final Advice: Learn the Sport, Learn Your Coaches
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