Working with Hypermobile Clients
Introduction – my background with Ehlers Danlos Hypermobility. I first heard about hypermobility in physical therapy school. We were receiving a lecture about an allegedly rare, obscure sounding condition called Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or EDS(h). I didn’t lean in too closely to the material. Like many physical culturists who enter the rehab field, I was convinced I would be spending my career working with high functioning athletes. Fast forward 5 years, and I’m in the process of growing a high-intensity strength training facility. As a physio, I had become a bit frustrated with the process of discharging a patient …
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A 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 …
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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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Top 25 resources you’ve not heard of before on managing and scaling your fitness business
As a founder of a fitness business, you need to be a best-in-class marketer, lead strategist, CFO, product designer and every other role involved with running a small company. The risks and psychological challenges of being all things to all people are real. Even the most confident entrepreneur with a winning business can get burnt out trying to do too much. I’ve curated a list of essential content to help you scale your business. Recommendations come from a mix of small business owners, academics, founders who have started and exited businesses, and scientists. Sift through the list, pick one and …
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The Rough Guide to Testosterone
This post is all about testosterone (T), we’ll look at what it is, what it does and where it comes from. We’ll cover the reasons that it is an important hormone for women as well as men and how low testosterone levels negatively impacts both sexes. We will detail some of the symptoms of low testosterone and what you can do about them. Then we will look at what the latest research reveals about the impact of exercise, both resistance training and aerobic, on acute and long-term levels of testosterone. By the end of the article, you’ll know a lot …
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How much do you lift? A guide to selecting the right weight
If you are just beginning HIT, one of the practical questions you are most likely looking to answer is How much weight should I use? Keen to get started with the intensity aspect and enthusiastic to lift as much as possible, many new HITers end up short changing themselves. Focusing foremost on intensity at the very outset of the journey and equating high loads with intensity is double trouble and a case of putting the cart before the horse. Or dangerous and inefficient, up goes the likelihood of injury along with a side order of dilution of the stimulus. It …
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The Complete Beginner’s Guide to High Intensity Resistance Training (HIT): Adapting the protocol to your circumstances and needs (part 4)
In this fourth and final part of the Complete Beginner’s Guide to HIT, I am going to cover some final points and address the circumstances in which adaptations or tweaks may need to be made to the protocol I have outlined in the preceding posts. Understanding the circumstances in which changes may be required or of benefit will help you to get the most out of HIT.
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The Complete Beginner’s Guide to High Intensity Resistance Training (HIT): Recommended routine, order of exercises, tempo, time under load, rest between exercises and frequency of training (part 3)
Here it is, the post I have been building up to over the previous two articles. Having laid the foundations in part 1 and part 2 of the beginner's guide to High Intensity Resistance Training, I am going to dive into revealing the workout routine that I consider a great introduction and solid foundation to your HIT journey.
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The Complete Beginner’s Guide to High Intensity Resistance Training (HIT): full-body workouts, types of exercise, technique and momentary muscular failure (part 2)
After writing the last post, I have been excited to get on with detailing the practical elements of HIT for you to use. But before I do that, we have some ground to cover on the theory and science behind High Intensity Resistance Training. In this post, I will detail the fundamentals of a HIT workout, including the types of exercises used, correct technique and discuss momentary muscular failure (MMF), the role it plays and how to get the most out of it.
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The Complete Beginner’s Guide to High Intensity Resistance Training (HIT): What it is, how it compares to other forms of exercise and the results you can expect to get (part 1)
For a while I have wanted to put out a free in-depth resource to act as a thorough introduction to the topic of High Intensity Resistance Training (HIT) for those of you who are just discovering it, and as a refresher for those who need to get back to the basics of what simply works. This is the article I wish that I had had access to when I first began resistance training in earnest back in 1996. It will be a simplified summation of the 21 years of experience I have; training myself, training with other experts in the …
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