In Conversation with Bill DeSimone: Joint-Friendly Fitness
Fairly recently I Zoomed with long-time friend of HITuni and all-round great guy Bill DeSimone, to discuss his latest book Joint Friendly Fitness and his current thoughts on strength training, HIT and the wider world of exercise. For those not yet familiar with Bill and his work: he has been an avid exerciser for well over 40 years and a personal trainer since 1983. During that time, he has also participated in sports such as bodybuilding, triathlon, inline skating, martial arts, and softball. As those years passed Bill accumulated some physical damage, chronic shoulder soreness, and a ruptured biceps and …
Read MoreLuke Carlson: Words of wisdom to the HIT community for personal trainers and facility operators
Luke Carlson is a familiar face to many in the world of high intensity training, CEO of Discover Strength, the main man behind the Resistance Exercise Conference and the instructor behind HITuni’s The Art of Selling HIT course. In this post Luke shares his time-tested insights on absolutely essential aspects of effective personal training and operating a successful HIT facility. You will learn the key attributes that make for a great personal trainer, how to recruit the right staff- often a challenge for facility owners in today’s world, and how trainers can stay excited and engaged after years in the …
Read MoreIn Conversation with John Little: The Six-Minute, No-Nonsense, High Intensity Resistance Training course
John Little is probably one of the most fascinating figures in the High Intensity Training world. He is a deep thinker and a natural researcher, with a profound world view and life philosophy, someone, who doesn’t accept the status quo without challenging it, and someone, who doesn’t consider himself “the expert”, despite his work on the groundbreaking books The Time Saver’s Workout and Body by Science, as author and co-author respectively. We met in Canada, before the pandemic, spending our time together filming the course, John Little’s Six-Minute HIT, which presents the culmination of everything he’s learned about exercise over …
Read MoreA crash course in High Intensity Strength Training
We all want a fit, strong and healthy body. We all want to look good and feel good, when we look ourselves in the mirror, and we all want to do it in a way that is sustainable, long-lasting and fits around a busy everyday life. Nutrition and lifestyle aside, modern research has shown time and time again that strength training is paramount in optimizing your physiology and minimizing the effects of ageing, such age-related muscle loss and bone mineral density reduction. We are proud and confident in saying that our approach to exercise, what we call High Intensity Resistance …
Read MoreA Podcast Collection On High Intensity Training and Wellbeing, with Simon Shawcross
Here’s a collection of a selection of my podcasts over the years (from most recent to oldest). 14 December 2020, HITuni’s 21st Century Certifications! In this episode we meet Simon Shawcross, founder and director of HITuni, an e-learning provider that specializes in delivering courses on high intensity training (HIT) and evidence based fitness. Simon shares his passion for HIT and the positive impact that exercise has on people’s lives that has driven him to dedicate the last seven years to developing premium online certification-level courses for personal trainers, as well as a number of non-certification courses for those who want …
Read MoreIn Conversation with Luke Carlson: The Biggest Mistake When Selling Exercise and How to Avoid It
Luke Carlson is a familiar face to many in the world of high intensity training, CEO of Discover Strength, the main man behind the Resistance Exercise Conference and the instructor behind HITuni’s The Art of Selling HIT course. In this article we go behind the scenes to reveal more about Luke, his perspective on the current state of the fitness industry and some top tips for successful selling. Discovering ‘intelligent exercise’ Luke grew up around exercise, he recalls being aged three or four when his police officer father started taking him and his brothers to a gym above …
Read More15 Protocols to Make your HIT Facility Covid-Secure and Inspire Client Confidence to Return to the Gym
After what may be up to six months of minimal social interaction, probably including non-attendance at the gym, what is likely to give clients the confidence to start training at your facility again? It is useful to consider that different individuals will have different levels of concern about COVID-19, and how it impacts their day-to-day life, including going to the gym. To pick examples from both ends of the spectrum: there will be people, particularly those in high-risk groups, who may still be second-guessing leaving their homes at all. At the other end of possible perspectives there will be those …
Read MoreNo External Load Training: How to perform resistance training without a load
One of our core beliefs at HITuni is that some form of strength training needs to become a facet of every individual’s life and lifestyle. Its impact on wellbeing from the obvious… strength, to the unseen… myokine release and cellular health, is a boon. It is clear more people need to and can benefit from strength training. What often present as key barriers to benefitting from strength training for individuals who don’t yet train are: perceived complexity and equipment availability. Most of us with a passion for resistance training relish exercising on well-designed exercise equipment and I have enjoyed using …
Read MoreHIT facilities, hit by Covid-19: What to do now
Habitual patterns of daily living for billions of humans have now been disrupted in an unprecedented manner by the spread of Covid-19 and the global reaction to it. As members of the fitness industry, as facility owners and personal trainers our community has been significantly impacted. Indeed, it has been estimated that around 90% of gyms around the globe have temporarily had to close their doors as governments introduce measures to slow the spread of the virus. Protecting those most at risk Why have businesses been shut down over a virus that for a majority is likely to be …
Read MoreOptimal training frequency for muscular strength and size
Strength gain and muscle size are two key motivating factors for those of us who engage in resistance training. You can find wildly differing opinions out there on how frequently a muscle group should be trained to optimize size and strength, ranging from daily workouts at one extreme to one workout every month at the other. In this post we will look at some of the various physiologic factors we need to consider when planning frequency of training for strength and size, including: Hypertrophy Edema Neuromuscular adaptation Glycogen Storage The “pump” What I intend to do is tease out …
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