Biography
This is not
going to be like your "typical" biography, which is usually filled
with a myriad of impressive college degrees, certifications,
accomplishments, etc, etc, etc. I'm not saying that some of that
isn't important, but what I feel is most important from a teaching
standpoint is that a good teacher has impressive experience "teaching". A good teacher is able to present you with information
that puts you on the right path, and inspires you to stay there.
There are many, many, so-called authorities with multiple "bells and
whistles" attached to their resumes who couldn't teach you diddly.
So, with that said let me tell you a little about myself.
I've been around the iron game (and athletics) for a long time. I've
been lifting, observing, and learning (college education and various
certifications) about strength training and conditioning for over 30
years now. Like many trainees, my discovery and utilization of
weight training gave me the ability to compete at a fairly high
level of competition; eventually playing Division I college football
and professional baseball. After baseball, I wanted to "get as big
as possible" eventually reaching 250 pounds at 5' 10" with legitimate
 20 inch arms, drug free. I've won a few drug-free
bodybuilding titles, and have squatted, deadlifted, and benched some
pretty big weights. Today, I'm still very motivated to accomplish
some lofty goals in raw, drug-free powerlifting. So, I don't want
you to think that my only point of reference is what I've
accomplished in the past. I'm still going after it hard now. And I'm
still learning things everyday. That's enough about what I've done.
What is more important, and what I feel makes someone an
accomplished teacher is not what they've done, but what they've
helped others achieve.
 Pursuing
my passion, I started a company 21 years ago to help others
accomplish their strength and conditioning goals. Today, Total
Fitness Inc. administers over 200 one-on-one training sessions per
week. During these 21 years I've logged over 60,000 hours of "hands-on", one-on-one instruction,
working with nearly every kind of trainee imaginable. Like most
others in my field I've got my list of trainees that have
accomplished things, whether it is in powerlifting or sports, that
would impress you. Trainees that have set world records in
powerlifting to others that have reached the professional level in
their chosen sport. But what I feel is just as impressive are the
trainees that you won't see in Powerlifting USA or on the football
field Sunday afternoon. These are the trainees that have overcome
various limitations, to pack on thirty pounds of muscle, perform a
double bodyweight squat, to improve their 40 yard dash by two
tenths, or to make the starting varsity high school roster. And
these accomplishments were achieved while maintaining a 'real life'
outside of the gym - at home, in the classroom and at work. These
are trainees that after training hard for years, sacrificing much of
their 'real life' with not much to show except frustration -
that had finally achieved gains in size and strength that they'd
only dreamed about. I could take this even further and tell you
about my trainees who have reached their ninth decade and are still
hitting the iron, but I think you get the point.
I'm blessed to be married to a wonderful lady, and have three
beautiful children.
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Training Philosophy
1. To implement a strength training / bodybuilding
/ conditioning program that is designed to achieve your
specific goals, based on your specific 'development level',
your training 'personality', your 'life responsibilities', and it must allow
for complete
recovery.
2. To teach every trainee how to achieve a state
where they put out maximum effort that
results in progression.
3. To Maximize Consistency; eliminating all circumstances
that cause missed workouts - primarily overtraining and weight
room injuries.
The Program
First of all you have to determine what your strength
training goals are. And actually there really aren't that many
choices here. I know that many in the strength training field
would have you believe that there are literally thousands of
different strength training methods dependant upon the specific
strength qualities or metabolic demands of your chosen activity.
Well, it's not really that complicated. If you are in the weight
room to enhance performance of any kind (powerlifting, swimming,
lacrosse) then your goal in the weight room is to get stronger -
period! Now, you may need to do this over different rep schemes,
and different exercises dependant upon your activity but that is
about as complicated as it gets. You are in the weight room to
get stronger, and then you are on the court, on the field, on
the track, in the pool, or on the slope - practicing the skills
of your sport - to convert that strength to enhance performance.
In other words, build the raw strength in your entire body
(which will increase your body's ability to produce force) in
the weight room and then practice the specific skills of your
sport so that the strength will transfer into that specific
skill.
If you are training at the right level of intensity - and
don't / won't take steroids - the body can't tolerate weight training
more than three times per week and 21+ years of experience
training a wide variety of trainees, has
taught me that in many cases two times per week is better. I am
aware that most of you have been bombarded for years by the
mainstream muscle building media that more is better when it
comes to achieving great size and strength, and nothing could be
further from the truth. If you try to apply this philosophy, all
you will do is end up hurt, disappointed, frustrated and with
not much in the strength and muscle department. If you simply
start with following the recommendations of training two to
three times per week, you'll be on the road to achieving
results. I've turned many trainees into some of the strongest
and biggest men that you would ever see and they did it by
strength training two times per week.
You need to choose exercises (compound exercises) that
work as much muscle mass as possible. For instance, squats and
bench presses verses leg extensions and flyes. By utilizing
compound exercises you're getting more bang for your effort
buck. What I mean by this is that for the amount of time and
effort that you would put into, say, a leg extension you would
get many times more muscle building and strength building
results by putting the same amount of time and effort into a
squat. It's really that simple..
To derive the most benefit out of a training program it
must be comprehensive. Your training program must address
aerobic / anaerobic conditioning, flexibility, nutrition and
sport specific skill training. These elements are critical to
your success.
Effort
There is so much macho B.S. about this subject it makes
me sick. It seems that everyone wants to talk about how hard
they work. They base a great workout on the fact that they
threw-up, passed-out, or trained so hard that they were sore for
a week. These trainees lose site of the fact that a great
workout is based on the fact that the trainee used more weight
or completed more reps on all - or some of - the exercises used
during that workout!
Let me tell you one absolute fact that I have learned from all
of my years of training and observation; all the effort in the
world won't mean diddly if it doesn't manifest itself as weight
on the bar, or more reps with a previously used weight. Sure,
you have to train hard - very hard - if you expect to produce
results (and yes, you might throw-up once in awhile), but once
again, it has to be directed at what you're trying to achieve.
It's like a fly trying to get out the window but the window is
closed. It can try as hard as it wants but it isn't going
anywhere until that window is open.
Make sure that you aren't just working hard for the sake of
working hard. But work hard for the sake of adding more and more
weight to the bar. Here's a good example. Take a trainee who
works the bench press to failure using the same weight he always
uses - then he performs two to three forced reps, then two to
three more negatives, then possibly strip weight off of the bar
and perform two or three more forced reps (actually the spotter
gets a great low back workout) - a great display of effort but
they never try to add weight to the bar. Sure they may make a
little progress but once again their effort is misdirected. They
are just hitting the dart board instead of hitting the
bulls-eye. This trainee would be hitting the bull's-eye if he
simply put a couple of more pounds on the bar above what he used
in the previous workout and busted his butt to at least achieve,
if not complete more reps than he'd done before. This is
regardless if he went to muscular failure or not.
Stimulate the body to change by using a little more
weight or performing more reps, give it adequate rest and
nutrients, then repeat for a number of years and you will
achieve results that will astound you. That's it - pretty simple
stuff.
Consistency
In order for your body to change you must subject it to a
stimulus on a consistent basis. If you apply the stimulus too
often you'll overtrain. If you allow the body too much time away
from the stimulus adaptation will cease. When you are strength
training at the right frequency (two to three times per week),
and at the correct rate of progression,
consistency
becomes the magical element in training.
Let me ask you a question, and I want you to be brutally honest
- not with me - but with yourself. Have you ever trained an
entire year without missing a single workout? If you are
training two times per week that would equal 104 workouts
without missing. Have you ever really done this? I've had
trainees that have actually exceeded this number and the results
are astounding. I know you love training and wouldn't miss a
workout voluntarily. So, what causes you to miss? Is it injuries
or illness brought about by overtraining? This is usually the
case. Overtraining is a result of you trying to workout on a
program that is not designed for a 'real trainee' who has a
'real life' and who doesn't take steroids. These programs are
generally not stimulating enough on a per-set basis, but have
you training 4 to 6 days per week using 20 to 30 sets per
bodypart - a gorilla couldn't recover from this.
Time
Reaching one's ultimate state of physical development takes
something more than all the required cliché attributes of hard
work, dedication, discipline, and sacrifice, to name a few. It
actually requires one more ingredient than the ones that I wrote
about above. The one ingredient that is seldom talked about or
more importantly not taught is the time requirement involved to
achieve one's potential. Great developments in size, strength,
power, speed, sports skills, etc. require that one practice all
the above for a relatively long period of time - usually many,
many years. I use the word relatively because I'm referring to
what is usually promoted in the widespread mainstream muscle
literature that significant development can occur virtually
overnight. And this is a flat-out lie that leads many, many
trainees down a road that not only leads to limited physical
development, but also to many, many years of frustration.
Well, here's the truth. If a trainee, with average genetics,
does everything right he or she can add 15 to 25 pounds
of solid weight in 6 months. But this will only be the start.
The major transformation will take place over the next three to
five years. At this point they will still not have achieved
their ultimate state of development - they could go further -
but they will have achieved the strength and development beyond
what 90% of gym trainees will ever accomplish. And
honestly, 3 to 5 years is not a long period of time. Let me
paint you a picture of what I'm taking about.
I can take a 5'11", 28 year old trainee who weighs in at 140
pounds and by the time his 31st birthday rolls around he will
weigh in the neighborhood of 240 pounds with the strength to
match.
Now, I want you to honestly assess how much progress you've made
in the last 3 years. Really, how much? How many times have you
been hurt and had to stop training? How many different programs
have you started and stopped because they didn't bring home the
bacon in a couple of months as promised? How frustrated are you
because you just cant make progress? Have you convinced yourself
that it's just because you have bad genetics? Well, let me
assure you it's just because you haven't had a good teacher -
yet.
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