# #495 Ben Yanes - Why Your Assessment Might Be a Waste of Time

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lift-free-and-diet-hard-with-andrew-coates-60220/495-ben-yanes-why-your-assessment-might-be-a-waste-of-time
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lift-free-and-diet-hard-with-andrew-coates-60220/495-ben-yanes-why-your-assessment-might-be-a-waste-of-time.md
Podcast: [Lift Free And Diet Hard with Andrew Coates](https://stenobird.com/podcast/lift-free-and-diet-hard-with-andrew-coates-60220)
Published: 2026-08-13T06:20:30+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/liftfreediethard/episodes/495-Ben-Yanes---Why-Your-Assessment-Might-Be-a-Waste-of-Time-e3nbfd9
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/4acb2b0/podcast/play/124156777/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-7-13%2F429753218-44100-2-d8c7731760f32.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lift-free-and-diet-hard-with-andrew-coates-60220/episodes/495-ben-yanes-why-your-assessment-might-be-a-waste-of-time
Duration seconds: 3335

## Resource

Ben Yanes makes his long-overdue first appearance on the podcast and brings his trademark nuance to assessment, biomechanics, exercise selection, injury narratives, science-based fitness, and what good coaching actually looks like in the real world. Ben joins me to discuss: • Why “a vast majority of the assessments you’re doing are a total waste of everyone’s time” • Why skilled coaches are continuously assessing clients during actual training • How training itself can function as an assessment • The relationship between science-based and anti-science fitness communities • Why the two tribes often rely on each other to create content • What actually qualifies someone as “science based” or “anti-science based” • Why nuance rarely performs as well as certainty on social media • The different camps that emerge around fitness information online • How people can rewrite the story they tell themselves about lifting • Common “bro biomechanics” misconceptions • What Ben means when he says, “Exercises don’t have a purpose, only people have a purpose” • Why exercise selection needs to begin with the goal of the individual • Why muscles respond to tension rather than knowing the name of an exercise • How biomechanics, physics, and subjective experience can coexist • The panic that sometimes develops around exercises like preacher curls • Why blaming an exercise for an injury can create misleading narratives • What Ben means by asking how “f#@kupable” an exercise is • Why load management and respect for an exercise matter • Why anterior pelvic tilt is not automatically something that needs to be fixed • The problems with quick-fix diagnoses and corrective-exercise identities • How diagnostic labels can influence someone’s perception of their own body • Why good coaches need to bec…

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