Ever think you had heard all there was to hear about High Intensity Training?  Train to failure, brief workouts, write it down, get lots of rest, try to do more next time.  There’s not that much else to talk about, is there?

Not so fast, my friend. Get your thinking cap on and fasten your seat belt for this month’s interview with Brian Johnston.

Brian is the Director of Education for Prescribed Exercise Clinics, and specializes in the area of bodybuilding, athletic strength training, and rehabilitation.  He has worked with national and international-calibre athletes. He is the developer of the Zone Training and Tri-Angular Training methods. He has authored over 20 books on the subject of exercise and nutrition science, is a contributor to the Merck Medical Manual, and has written for various magazines, including Ironman and Olympian News. He has lectured internationally and has worked in various judging capacities, including the IFBB and MET-Rx World’s Best Personal Trainer.

And as if all that wasn’t enough, Brian was a close friend and former business partner of the late, great Mike Mentzer.

So grab your favorite caffeinated beverage and pay attention, because Brian is about to stretch your brain as he discusses:

• The one tip that Joe Weider gave him that actually worked
• The weird reason he got into High Intensity Training
• His relationship with Mike Mentzer, including their disagreements about training methods
• How to know if you are over-training
• How studying the field of economics helped his training (and can help yours)
• What’s better-counting reps or time under tension
• An explanation of his “Zone Training” and “Tri-Angular Training” methods (totally unique stuff!) 
• Why lifting the heaviest weights possible may be a mistake for you
• And much, much more!!!

SPECIAL BONUS: At the end of the interview, Brian tells us about his one-on-one coaching program, and reveals what he will be presenting at the upcoming HIT Resurgence Conference  March 15 and 16!

To listen to the Brian Johnston Interview, just click on the play arrow (the little triangle on the left) below:

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: This year’s HIT Resurgence Conference is being held March 15 and 16 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  This is your one and only opportunity of the year to meet, learn from, socialize with, and be trained by some of the top High Intensity Training experts in the world, including Brian Johnston.  If you believe strongly in High Intensity Training, you will not want to miss out on the lifetime memories you will create at this Conference.

Click Here For More Information On The HIT Resurgence Conference

P.S. Make sure you find me and say hello at the Conference!

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a place you could go where you could meet a bunch of the High Intensity Training experts you’ve heard do interviews on this site?  How about if you could not just meet them, but learn from them in a classroom setting, then follow them over to the weight room for some hands-on demonstrations?

And as if that wasn’t cool enough, what if you also got a chance to share a meal, and maybe even have a couple drinks, with these experts, and just talk training with them in a social setting to your heart’s content?

And what if you could, at the same time, in the same place, have an experienced High Intensity Trainer put through the toughest High Intensity workout you have ever done? And how about if there were a couple hundred other people there to hang out with, who loved High Intensity Training just as much as you do? Does that sound too good to be true or what?

Well, it’s not too good to be true. Such a place does exist; it’s called the HIT Resurgence Conference, and it’s happening March 15th and 16th in Minneapolis, Minnesota–and I want to meet you there.

The event is being hosted by my friend Luke Carlson, owner of Discover Strength personal training studios. In case you have never met Luke, he is a class act, one of the most knowledgeable HIT experts around, and this event is first class all the way. You will learn, network, make new friends, and create some great training memories. It is a fantastic experience you will not soon forget, so I really hope you will make the commitment right now to get there.

Sounds Awesome-I Am Ready To Commit And Sign Up For HIT Resurgence 2013 

I will be there, along with my wife Patty, and 2 of the Fitness Coaches from our training studio-Shawn “Dag-Nasty” Deignan and Illy “The Shizzle” Stoilova-Rogers. When you get there, I want you to make it a point to find us and introduce yourself.

Here’s Luke and Brandon to tell us more about this year’s event:

Click Here To Register And Learn More Details About HIT Resurgence 2013

I really hope to meet you there if we haven’t met before, and look forward to seeing you again if we have.

Where else would you rather be March 15th and 16th?

Click Here To Register And Learn More Details About HIT Resurgence 2013

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Where do you get your nutritional information and advice from?

The most qualified people to give you such advice are R.D.’s, or Registered Dieticians.  If you’ve ever spoken to one, you know exactly what I mean–they are like walking encyclopedias of nutrition info.  No financially motivated mumbo-jumbo, just the straight facts.

The problem, of course, is that most RD’s don’t even work out, much less know anything about high intensity training.  So even though you feel like they’re teaching you something about nutrition, you’re not sure how to apply it to your own situation in the interest of facilitating training progress.

So just because I love you so much, I found a guy who is both a Registered Dietician and a High Intensity Training expert.  In fact, he runs his own training facility, Medfitness in St. Charles, Illinois.  He will also be a featured speaker at this year’s HIT Resurgence Conference in Minneapolis Minnesota (more on that later).

This month our featured guest is Richard Wolff, RD, LDN.

As the founder and president of MEDFITNESS, Richard has dedicated his life to helping people live well. As an educator, he has taught at one of America’s top 100 hospitals.  As a Registered Dietitian and Licensed Nutritionist, Richard serves on the Nutrition Advisory Board at Northern Illinois University.  Richard is licensed to practice medical nutrition therapy and completed an internship in clinical nutrition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL.

Richard has been captivating audiences and readers for over 25 years.  His continuing education workshops have been presented to fitness professionals at major universities throughout the United States including the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Pennsylvania. Richard has been a featured speaker at the nationally acclaimed Fight the Fat program in Dyersville, Iowa and his articles have been featured in award-winning publications including the Kane County Chronicle, The Daily Herald, Weightlifting USA, Nautilus America’s Fitness Magazine, Club Industry Maganzie and Personal Fitness Professional.

Having worked as a consultant with the American Cancer Society, the Discovery Health Channel, and Health Management Resources (the nation’s leading provider of medical weight management services), there’s nothing Richard loves more than seeing people succeed at living well.

So grab a veggie burger and a wheat grass shake and listen in as Richard schools us on:

• His early days with Nautilus, and how he eventually opened Medfitness
• The 3 nutritional keys you need to build more muscle (I told you-I love you)
• Why you need to “respect the power of the overall diet”
• What eating has to do with training intensity
• What “protein retention” is, and why it’s important to you (this is big)
• Which supplements you need, and which ones are a waste of time
• And much, much more!

To listen to the Richard Wolff Interview, just click on the play arrow (the little triangle on the left) below:

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: This year’s HIT Resurgence Conference is being held March 15 and 16 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  This is your one and only opportunity of the year to meet, learn from, socialize with, and be trained by some of the top High Intensity Training experts in the world.  If you believe strongly in High Intensity Training, you will not want to miss out on the lifetime memories you will create at this Conference.

Click Here For More Information On The HIT Resurgence Conference

P.S. Make sure you find me and say hello at the Conference!

I got a voicemail today that knocked me for a loop.  It was a message from my friend Doug Holland, informing me that Greg Anderson–husband, trainer, gym owner, High Intensity Training expert, and an all-around great guy–had passed away. 

Greg was the owner of Ideal Exercise in Seattle, Washington, one of the finest, and busiest, HIT training facilities anywhere.  He was well known and well respected by everyone in the HIT community.  He was a good friend of the late Mike Mentzer, and Doug McGuff, author of Body By Science, referred to him in a blog post as “The Greatest Trainer In The World”.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Greg in person, but was lucky enough to be able to interview him, and speak to him on the phone several times.  He was always upbeat, with a happy-go-lucky demeanor, and was funny as hell.  We talked about training, the training business, our experiences with Mike Mentzer, and some of the crazy people we’ve met through high intensity training.  He was kind enough to send me a DVD of him training some of his clients, and once even called me out of the blue to warn me of potential legal action against me over intellectual property rights.  In my experience, he was the personification of a stand-up guy.

I would like to express my sincerest condolences to his wife Ann-Marie, his family and friends, and all those suffering from the loss of a great man.  The High Intensity Nation will not be the same without him.

For those of you who never had the pleasure of coming in contact with Greg, I have re-posted his interview below.

Rest in peace, Greg.  You will be missed.

To hear the Greg Anderson interview, just click on the play arrow (the little triangle on the left) below:

Comments are welcomed.

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Doug “The Sickness” Holland performs 5 chins with 100 pounds of chains strapped to himself.  Strict.  Dead hang.  No kipping.  Oh by the way Doug is over 50 years old.  Gee Doug, I guess High Intensity Training doesn’t work….

Markus “MR High Intensity” Reinhardt pre-contest tribute to his mentor, the one and only Mike Mentzer. Go get ‘em Markus!

Denny “The Human Guinea Pig” Locascio gets tested on the old Med-X medical testing low back machine at Ken Keppler’s Abstract Fitness in Gainesville, Florida.

Your boy gives you a secret bicep training technique with dumbbells (at the end of the video)

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Illy “The Shizzle” Stoilova-Rogers crushes a metabolic workout with Shawn “Deig-nasty” Deignan coaching at Rock Solid Fitness FL

Important leg press tips from Fred Fornicola

This Discover Strength negative-only workout is probably illegal in a few countries

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Doug “The Sickness” Holland leaves the boring Halloween party to knock out a few Wagon Wheel deadlifts

Nice profile of High Intensity Strength Coach Mike Bradley

Fred Fornicola teaches us some unique ways to train with a Trap Bar

Joe Cirulli smokes Illy and me on the X-Force Pulldown at Gainesville Health and Fitness

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Our High Intensity Interview this month features one of the top 2 most famous people to ever come from Asbury Park, New Jersey–the owner of Premiere Personal Fitness, Fred Fornicola.

The One and Only Fred Fornicola

The other famous guy from Asbury Park NJ–Bruce something

 Fred has been involved in the fitness field for over 35 years as a personal trainer, strength and conditioning coach, volunteer basketball coach, consultant and lifestyle coach.  He has authored more than 250 articles on strength training and fitness, and co-authored the best-selling book Dumbell Training For Strength And Fitness. 

Fred is one of those guys who doesn’t allow himself to get boxed in with regard to training philosophies and methodologies.  He looks at everything, questions everything, keeps what he thinks has merit, and discards what he thinks does not.  Of course, he only keeps techniques that successfully pass through the filter of being safe, effective, and efficient.  That’s why I wanted to have him on this interview–so we can all benefit from his unique perspectives, and hopefully add some stuff to our own training programs that will improve them.

Fred and Matt Bryzcki also just co-authored a really cool e-book titled “50 Workouts For Strength And Fitness: Safe, Efficient And Effective Training With Free Weights.”  You can download this e-book right to your computer or phone, and start using the workouts right away.  The workouts include barbell, dumbbell and bodyweight exercises, and are totally consistent with High Intensity Training principles.  They incorporate a lot of intensity-raising advanced protocols, such as 60-second reps, negatives, pre-exhaust, metabolic training (these are sick), and many others, some of which I had never heard of or thought of–and I’ve been doing this for a long time.  Have you ever heard or thought of doing a FULL BODY workout using only a trap bar?  I didn’t either–but Fred did, and it’s in there.

This e-book is an awesome addition to anybody’s training library, whether an advanced trainee or a beginner.  And the best part is it’s only $4.99!  For less than the price of a Starbucks coffee, you could have enough brand new, ultra-challenging workouts to last you a whole year.  I’ll tell you how to get your copy in a minute,

But first, listen in as Fred talks about the programs in his new e-book and also explains: 

•  The most important factor in a successful workout
• How to structure your workout for maximum benefit, even if you have hardly any equipment (this is huge)
• An unusual twist to a popular bodyweight exercise
• The mental factor you must possess to get the most out of your training
• A cool way to do deadlifts for variety
• Why trying to do more reps can be a huge mistake
• And much, much more!

To listen to the Fred Fornicola Interview, just click on the play arrow (the little triangle on the left) below:

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Click Here To Grab Your Copy Of “50 Workouts For Strength And Fitness” For Only $4.99

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In Memory Of Tony Brown, 1985-2009

“Life is for those who truly live it, and time alone does not make a full life”.

That’s the quote I selected to go with my picture in my high school yearbook. I have always believed that, and try my best to always live life to the fullest, to not miss anything.

Of course, as you become an adult some repetition is inevitable, but it’s amazing how much you can squeeze into your life if you really commit yourself to doing that.

My nephew, Tony, was that way. Student, son, film-maker, brother, boyfriend, snowboarder, friend, athlete, partier, traveler, adventurer-that guy stuffed more things into his life than most people could do in three lifetimes.

Being the youngest child of three brothers, he had a lot of “keeping up” to do.  Tony, however, proved at a very young age that his brothers would have to keep up with him.  Tony loved all sports, but especially extreme.  

He started skateboarding at a very young age and even built a half pipe for the back yard.  Injuries were no stranger to Tony.  Broken bones were always in his life.  Football, lacrosse, skateboarding, snowboarding, wake boarding, dirt bikes, and bmx kept him busy and out of trouble.  As he grew older, a video camera became part of his hobbies.  He loved to capture his friends practicing tricks. He discovered his dream; to work in the film industry with extreme sports.  

His future was full of hopes and dreams with a goal to film the sports he loved, have a family and live a full life!

Unfortunately, fate would have it that Tony would die just a month short of graduating from Full Sail School in Florida.

Tony died at the young age of 24 on July 11, 2009 from complications during a hospital procedure. 

Tony’s passing gave me, and all of his family and friends, a horrible, sobering reminder of just how fragile life is. It can be taken away from any one of us in an instant. None of us have any way of knowing how much time we have left on this earth.

That being the case, it is incumbent upon all of us to make the most of our lives. Take charge of your life and your future. Set challenging goals for yourself, and design your life around them.

Train your mind as well as your body. Get and keep yourself in great physical condition, so that a lack of fitness never holds you back.

Make your life a daring adventure, full of thrills, achievement and happiness.

Work hard on developing yourself to be the best you can be. Cultivate and nurture your relationships with the people who mean a lot to you.

Don’t miss anything. Don’t leave anything on the table. LIVE!

And don’t let any opportunity that comes your way pass you by.

Tony never did.

Click Here Learn More About The Tony Brown Foundation

 

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Our High Intensity Training Interview this month commemorates the new  release of the historical 25th anniversary edition of the outstanding book “A Practical Approach To Strength Training”, written by this month’s guest, Matt Brzycki.

Through his prolific writing over the last 25 years, Matt has been one of the biggest proponents anywhere of productive, safe, and time-efficient–in other words, practical–strength training methods.   

Matt has nearly 30 years of experience at the collegiate level as a coach, instructor and administrator. This includes work as a Health Fitness Supervisor at Princeton University (May 1983 to September 1984), Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Rutgers University (September 1984 to July 1990) and a variety of positions at Princeton University including Strength Coach and Health Fitness Coordinator (August 1990 to December 1993); Coordinator of Health Fitness, Strength and Conditioning (December 1993 to March 2001); Coordinator of Recreational Fitness and Wellness Programs (March 2001 to June 2007); and his current role as Assistant Director of Campus Recreation, Fitness (June 2007 to present).

He served in the US Marine Corps from 1975 to 1979, earning various distinctions including the Leatherneck Award (for rifle marksmanship), meritorious promotion to the rank of sergeant, Meritorious Mast, Good Conduct Medal, Certificate of Merit, Drill Instructor Ribbon and rifle expert badge (three awards). After completing his four-year enlistment, Matt enrolled at The Pennsylvania State University where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education in 1983. In college, he was a competitive powerlifter and bodybuilder.

This fourth edition of A Practical Approach To Strength Training  is a long awaited update of the classic book that has been a widely-used resource in the fitness industry, selling over 35,000 copies.  Many of the chapters have been overhauled with the latest information on strength and fitness–new chapters include anaerobic training, metabolic training, flexibility training, power training, weight management and nutrition.  The book also describes nearly 100 exercises that can be done with free weights, machines, and manual (partner) resistance.  In my opinion, this book is a must-have in the fitness library of anybody who is serious about strength training.

In this exclusive interview, Matt reveals tons of fascinating, funny, and useful information, like:

•  What it took to write a book back in the ’80′s compared to today (hint: there was no Microsoft Word back then)
• The behind-the-scenes evolution of the book over the years
• The 2 strength training principles that you must apply to your training to succeed
• The most important study on exercise performed in the last 25 years, and it what the results mean to you
• How practical strength training approaches have changed in the last 25 years (surprising)
• The biggest “Urban Myths” in the fitness industry today
• How to properly evaluate various training techniques
• And much, much more!

To hear the Matt Brzycki interview, just click on the play arrow (the little triangle on the left) below:

Click Here To Grab Your Copy of A Practical Approach To Strength Training, 25th Anniversary Edition 

Let Matt know what you thought of the interview below:

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