A Template for Resistance Training, Updated for 2019
One of the questions that I asked James Steele to elaborate on during our recent interview was: if he were to lay out a template for personal trainers introducing clients to resistance training/HIT, how would such a template look today? Let’s explore his answer, as well as James Fisher’s input into the elements that make up the template. Steele starts out by highlighting that his template is best considered as a base that can be built on and experimented from, to fit the individual client and their needs or as James puts it “their context”. The following is a pragmatic, …
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In Conversation with James Fisher and James Steele (part 2): This is why you might want to use heavier loads with your clients
In this post we are going to look at the impact that the load we choose to use whilst performing an exercise has on our results. This is the second in a series of blog posts inspired by and featuring recent conversations with James Fisher, Senior Lecturer Sports Conditioning and Fitness at Southampton Solent University, and James Steele, Principal Investigator at UK Active Research Institute; Associate Professor Sport and Exercise Science at Southampton Solent University. Read the first one on perception of effort and its impact on achieving true muscular failure. In research, the load used for an exercise is …
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In Conversation with James Fisher and James Steele (part 1): Do you train to TRUE muscular failure? Understanding perception of effort, discomfort and intensity
An Agreed Definition of Intensity? When conversing with a wider audience there can however be a challenge, potential for miscommunication, in the interpretation of the term used. As James Fisher, James Steele and others have pointed out, there are trainers and researchers who associate the term “intensity” with the percentage of a 1 Rep Max (%1RM) being used during exercise. A 1RM is the most weight an individual can lift for one single repetition of an exercise. A percentage of this load is then often used for a given number of reps in research papers and in training routines, …
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The Ultimate Science-Based Resistance Training Routine for Older Adults
On 28th September 2017, a mini review into resistance training for older adults was published in Experimental Gerontology titled “A minimal dose approach to resistance training for the older adult; the prophylactic for aging”. This is a very exciting piece of research, thrilling for the simplicity and practicality of its conclusions and recommendations. It is the kind of paper that I want to beam into the hands of every individual over the age of 60 and every health influencer of that age group too. Scratch that, if all other resistance training research on earth was somehow decimated and just this …
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MMF better than RP: Strength and Body Composition Results (part 3)
The first two posts relating to this piece of research (The effects of low volume resistance training with and without advanced techniques in trained participants. Jürgen Giessing, James Fisher, James Steele, Frank Rothe, Kristin Raubold, Björn Eichmann) looked at the reasons we consider this research paper to be of value, the exercise protocols used and the differences in protocol between the three groups (ssRM, ssMMF and ssRP). In this post, we will look at how the researchers gathered the data and the actual results of the study in detail and we will take a look at the conclusions that can …
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Momentary Muscular Failure better than Repetition Maximum: Protocol Differences (part 2)
Last week, I wrote about a new piece of exercise research (The effects of low volume resistance training with and without advanced techniques in trained participants), and what makes this research valuable. I covered aspects such as the basic protocol that the three groups performed and the similarities between the specific exercise routines performed by each group. In this post, I want to discus how the protocols studied, differed between the groups – in effect what is it that the research actually looks at and provides data about. Remember that the three groups were: ssRM: individuals in this group performed a single set to (self-determined) Repetition …
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Momentary Muscular Failure better than Repetition Maximum: Methodology and Participants (Part 1)
A new and exciting paper on resistance training titled, “The effects of low volume resistance training with and without advanced techniques in trained participants” has recently been published by Minerva Medica. Researchers include: Jürgen Giessing, James Fisher, James Steele, Frank Rothe, Kristin Raubold and Björn Eichmann. This a paper that will prove to be of great interest to personal trainers and those involved with or who partake in resistance training, strength training and exercise in general. Let’s see why now. Key findings The researchers found that single sets taken to MMF produced better results in strength and hypertrophy for …
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