Jake Boly is a writer, powerlifter, and online personality who has written (literally) thousands of articles covering the world of strength sports. He's also BarBend's Fitness Editor and a huge part of our social media team. Over the past three years, Jake has had a ringside seat to one of the biggest issues plaguing the strength community: social media trolls. 

In this episode of The BarBend Podcast, Jake gives his honest take on the impact trolling has on the strength community, and why so much of that hate is directed at a couple of sports and strength disciplines in particular. We examine the origins of online criticism and how it's shaping today's discourse on strength training, especially the development of new techniques and strategies when it comes to getting stronger. 

"Every time you post a CrossFit video or a post or an article, whether it be positive, negative, and so forth, there's always at least one troll comment, no matter what," says Jake. "Without fail, there's always one comment."

Jake and David also talk about some of the strength athletes they admire most, along with why it's more common to see athletes jump between strength sports in a particular pattern.