S1:E3 - Andre Benoit on The Enterprise Fitness Podcast

G'day, it's Rhys Adams here. Welcome to the show that punches you in the face with information, but in a good way. It's the Enterprise Fitness Podcast, proudly brought to you by the good people at Enterprise Fitness. To transform your body, increase performance, or compete, make sure to speak to the great coaches at Enterprise Fitness. Email them today info@enterprisefitness.com.au. Today's guest is Andre Benoit. I first met Andre when I did my PICP Level 1 with the Pollock Strength Academy before they became Pollock Group. Andre is a coach and educator, and what's most impressive is he has been getting people results for 27+ years and growing the fellow minds of coaches to keep the standards of the fitness industry as high as possible. Andre started his career working alongside Charles Poliquin and now works from his own facility in Canada called the Canadian Center for Strength and Conditioning. Andre has also been to the Olympics as an athlete in the sport of luge. To prove how awesome Andre is, this is his second time on our show. Jump onto the Enterprise Fitness website to check out the first one that he did with Mark Ottobre. I could go on and on, but this show is about Andre, so I'll let him take over so we can get started. See you on the other side. Welcome, Andre.

Hi.

Thank you for taking the time away to come on the show today.

No problems, a pleasure. Always good to talk to Australians.

How's the weather over in Canada?

It's cold. Well, today actually it's warm, it's -7, but we had a few days last week it was 20, -15, so.

Yeah, that's better than Christian. Christian was saying it was -21 where he is.

Yeah, I know Montreal is, but they had a late winter. We started our winter a little bit earlier than they did, but so that's why they're paying for it.

Yeah, yeah. So Andre, can you please just give us a brief insight into your enormously prosperous coaching career?

Uh, okay, I started, uh, okay, so you want to start me to start when I was an athlete or the first day I became a strength coach?

Let's go from strength coach.

Okay, so strength coach, I became a strength coach in 1989, uh, basically to help out Charles Poliquin. That's how I started this career because before that I was studying to do my phys ed degree and I was studying to be a pilot. Charles had a lot of work to do and I asked him, I said, "You should maybe hire an assistant." And he goes, "Well, who would like to do this with me?" I said, "Well, I'll do it." And then I became his assistant. Sorry. And then my first— so I learned to coach with him and he was doing all the programs. I would be coaching his programs and then my first team that I had was the national, the junior Alberta, junior national Alpine ski team, the downhill guys. And so I would be writing programs, Charles would be looking at them, and I would correct them most of the time, and then I would just coach the kids on the team. And I was still an athlete then, so I would do coaching and also training. For myself. So it was a really good learning process because I was able to learn from Charles as an athlete, and I was able to apply what I was doing practically with him, and I was able to translate that to some of the programs I would be writing for the Alpine ski team guys. And then I went on, I moved on to do the Nordic combined team. That was on my own. Then I would assist Charles always throughout those years with coaching. He would be having NHL player guys, so like big names like Al MacInnis and Gary Roberts, and I would be helping him out. Then slowly I started having my own niche or my own clientele of hockey players, and then not necessarily NHL guys, but guys that would be on what we call here the farm team, so the teams that would feed the NHL. Teams. And then I had a whole bunch of— I had the amateur sport, I would have luge, bobsleigh, skeleton, some speed skaters, a female speed skating team that would come to me and I would coach them. And then went on to my own NHL players then after that, like Eric Brewer and Wayne Redden and so on. I know they're not really well known in Australia, but in Canada they're fairly well known. And then with some, through Charles, I got some NFL football guys, some Canadian Football League athletes, some pole vaulters, that was on my own, pole vaulters and some track and field athletes and so on. So I had a big diversity. Funny enough, I had my, so I started coaching in 1989 and I had my first general population client in 1993. And actually, my first general population client, I totally destroyed.

I remember you saying that.

Yeah, and I, and I toned my— the program I was designing was— I really toned it down. But even for this lady, she was brand new, never was introduced to training, and I— she was like, stuff like I did, well, I'll just do 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps. Split squats and stuff like that. And she was so sore she missed 2 days of work. She called me crying the next day, which I felt so bad. Obviously I didn't charge her any money, but that's how I started. I started right away with high performance athletes, which was good, but at the same time with the general population I had to learn to really adopt a different philosophy and see things differently with them than I would. I would use the same principles, but I would have to adapt a lot of it to fit the general population clientele for sure. Yeah. Yeah, and then after that I went to teaching for Charles in 2007. I kind of quit coaching and I started again in 2012 when I resigned from the, with Charles, with the Polyklinic Institute then, and then I came back to coaching, writing programs and stuff with general population, some athletes, and it's a huge change from 2007 to 2012. So there's a massive change in the general population clientele, especially with young athletes, not in a good way actually.

What were you doing in that time that you had off?

Off from— well, I was basically— I helped Charles. Charles called me with Caroline then and they called me to restructure their classes from Level 1 PICP to Level 4, and I did that with John Connor and Owen Lacey, and then I started teaching. So I was basically teaching almost all the time. I had some clients, but nothing major here back home that I would write a program for, but basically I was teaching the different principles, the Poliquin principles, so everything that people would read on the that Charles wrote about and so on. I would be teaching that with different other teachers, like I said, John Connor. That was a group we started with, John Connor and Owen Lacey, and other people came in afterwards, but that's what I was doing basically.

Yeah, did you find being an athlete yourself, it complemented your ability to coach? Did you find that?

Yeah, definitely, for sure. I always tell when I teach around the world, I always say to people, I said, my biggest advantage— yes, I had Charles, which was, he was a great mentor, but the biggest advantage I had is that he made me, or the whole team, but for me, I was able to be exposed to a whole bunch of different, very, very good training systems, and most of them were from the Eastern Bloc that Charles in the '80s was able to get a hold of either because of his travels or talking to people and connecting with people around the world. And all these Eastern Bloc training systems or European, what I call European training system, where all of a sudden became available to us, unknowingly to us, like I didn't know they were from the Eastern Blocs except if the system was called like for example the Bulgarian system or the Romanian system, stuff like that. Then you kind of knew it was from the Eastern Bloc. But other than that, there was, uh, for us, Charles put the training system with Mode A, Mode B, Mode C, Mode D, and so on. But all these different training systems I was exposed to, so I was able to experience it myself as an athlete. I was able to see how it feels to do them properly. Then when I would be writing programs, then I was able to, as I was writing the program on a piece of paper, I was able to visualize the person who was going to do them, and I would say, "Oh no, you know what, this is, they're going to die. There's no way they're going to benefit from this program. It's way too hard." So I would either modify it or change it, use a different system that would be more appropriate for that athlete or that client. I think this is a huge advantage I had. If you look at other coaches, out there that have not had the chance to be exposed to so many different, I would call them higher level training system.

Yeah, the system that Charles put you on, Cluster Training, that would have been a wake-up call for you.

Oh yeah, but that's just one, but that, and that's the one that we always talk about because for us in the, like we weren't the only one who did it, like the Allouge team, we did it for sure, but also the, I remember the Bobsleigh guys doing the same Same thing that would be modified as far as the exercise selection would be more suitable for them to some extent. But definitely the cluster training was an eye-opener as far as how much, if you push yourself really, really hard, how much of the tax, how much taxing it can have to your nervous system. Like, it was pretty incredible. Also, I must say that we did it a little bit too long. But we had the time to recover from it, so that was not so bad. But it was— the cluster training is— yeah, it was a good eye-opener for us for sure, especially with— it was the first time we ever done something so hard. So yeah, in respect to relative strength training, I mean, he made us do some other crazy workouts for hypertrophy, and like, I remember being This one time I called him because I said, Charles, I've been severely sore for 14 days. And he started laughing. And I go, I don't think it was funny because it was like massively sore. Like every morning I had problem getting out of bed. But that's how hard he taught us to push ourselves. And that's another thing also that I must say that he really pushed. It's having good ethic in the gym. Like you get in, you train hard, and you get out. There's no music, there's no mirror, there's no time to start posing. You get in there, give your hardest, and get out. And then if you— in those days, if you looked at him train, like, he was, he was working hard also. Like, he was not like lazy in the gym at all. So he was working really hard too. So he never asked for us what he didn't ask for himself.

So it was around that stage when he got you to start using Was it protein powder or supplements to recover?

Yeah, yeah. So in 1990, 1990 actually, like, I was tired and I was doing a lot of stuff. So you have to understand, in Canada, and was basically probably the same, very similar in Australia, but there's no, we don't have much support. So I was doing my university full-time in the summer I was working to be able to afford to slide, and I was training full-time to be able to make the standards and be, you know, top in the world. So there's a lot. Anyway, I was tired, and so I would train, I would have results, but then one time I was saying to Charles, I'm like, "Freak, I'm done." He goes, "Okay, come in my office." So we're going to his office, and he said he made a shake, like a carb shake. And then in those days, you have to understand that that's like, that's post Ben Johnson. And Ben Johnson, everybody knows he got cut for steroids, and he was, you know, Canadian. So we were tested like every freaking month almost. Not a word of exaggeration, like we were tested a lot. And I was— they have this big, this huge fear campaign going on about saying that if you take protein shake, you might test positive, and if you take creatine, for sure you test positive. And so I wasn't taking anything. Because everybody was scared we're gonna test positive on anything. So they even told us like, if you have too much coffee, you'll test positive. I was like, holy crap. So anyway, yeah, it was pretty funny. And this one thing, my son was dead and Charles says, drink this drink. And I said, well, no, I'm scared. I don't want to test positive. And then he got so angry. And that's one, that's the first time I saw really Charles really angry at me. He goes and he got his fist close to my, like maybe a 2 feet from my face, he goes, "If you don't drink this fucking carb, I'm gonna beat you up right now, so drink that thing and shut up." So I grabbed the— and he meant it. Maybe he wasn't gonna beat me up, but he was getting angry, so I drank the shake, and then for 2 weeks I was like, "I'm gonna test positive." Obviously I didn't test positive because it was a Northern Lights carb shake, and if anybody out there knows what Northern Lights used to taste like, it was like cardboard. It was horrible. But anyway, so I actually did, and the second time Charles almost kicked my ass was the next day after I had my shake. I went to training and I go, "Man, I feel pretty good." And Charles was like, "No, you have to have a shake after every workout." So he thought that I was taking one after every workout, but I would be taking one every once in a while because it was again the fear factor of testing positive. It's pretty— yeah, that's the day I first had my first— well, that's not true. I had a protein shake before. My first protein shake was dried skim milk. So yeah, that's what it was. But that was in 1989. Yeah, 1990, I had my first protein shake. With my dried skim milk. So it was pretty funny. If you look at where the supplementation system is now, or the market, it's just crazy. Like, I look at it now, I was like, holy moly, this is so far ahead and beyond what we had. It's pretty, pretty funny.

After doing your course, you only recommend very basic supplements, and we found them to definitely work while we did your It was 4 days, wasn't it? 4-day—

Yeah.

Hypertrophy Academy. You've got to get the basics right, don't you?

Yeah, and for me, I always say that your multivitamin, your omega-3, D3, that's your basics. You can't— and I'm starting now, even iodine, I'm starting to look at it even more because it's where everybody's lacking in iodine. But you've got to get good Good iodine for sure. But for sure that omega-3, a good multivitamin, omega-3 and D3 would be, for me, that's part of nutrition actually. It's no more supplement.

Is there anything that you look for in particular when giving iodine? Is there any like telltale signs that someone needs it?

Well, no, that's the problem. Like I don't have the test. I mean, I do work here with a naturopath who's ex, really, it's, with the Paradigm Group. It's a place here in Calgary. He's really, really good. And, um, so I do work with them and they do the blood test and everything and they can figure it out. But from as a gym owner only, like, he— it's really difficult. That's why I don't talk too much about it because you still have to be careful. You cannot really prescribe iodine. Like, it's— you got to be careful how much you take, obviously. So, but if you have a— like I said, for me with my naturopath, if there's ever a question, I send them there and then they can actually tell them how many drops a day you should be taking and so on. Yeah. But everybody, like, if you talk to naturopaths around the world, they'll tell you everybody's lacking in iodine now. So, and iodine is the number one thing to help you deal with radiation. Not that we're always walking in radiation, but for me, for example, I fly a lot, so I know I'm a little bit more radioactive than I should be, and I should be taking it more consistently for sure.

That's a few good tips there. You were given the nickname the Flying Squirrel. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Flying Squirrel?

Yeah.

Okay, that happened so in 1990, in the '90s, '91, '92, we were getting, some of us were getting really strong at doing chin-ups because we believed there was a huge correlation between a wide grip chin-up and a good start. So we're getting pretty efficient at doing them. So for example, in testing, I did 123 pounds, 123.7 pounds for one rep, wide grip, chin above the bar, and my lats were pretty— in those days, my lats were pretty significant as far as the size. And one day I was having a massage with Patrick Anderson, who was the team massage therapist, and Charles came in and then I was on the table and then Patrick was massaging me and then Charles says, "Fuck, Andrei!" He goes, "What are those?" I said, "What? What's wrong?" He goes, "Those lats are way bigger there than—" He goes, "You got huge lats!" I'm like, "Yeah, they're okay, I guess. I don't know, I never really paid attention to them." And then Patrick Anderson was there and he's massaging me. He goes, "Yeah, he's like a freaking flying squirrel!" And then Charles says, "Yeah, you're the flying squirrel!" That's how it all happened. So Charles, the routine he had us do for giving our pronated chin-ups, you know, a lot of strength in our pronated chin-ups, this routine he called the André Benoit, the André Flying Squirrel routine. So that's where it came from.

Can you give us an idea of what that workout kind of looked like or the progressions?

Yeah, some people think it's like a 16-week workout, but it actually was 32 weeks. So it's basically 2 seasons it took us to— well, it took me anyway to get to that strength. And it's to remember all of them, to be honest, I wouldn't. It's somewhere in my notes downstairs, but I don't remember everything. But definitely cluster was— so that, let's say, if we take the 16 weeks prior to where I did my 123.7 pounds chin-up. And in training, actually, there's this guy also named Harrington Telford, and he was a teammate of mine, and both of us would be fighting each other. So at one point he was doing the best, and then I beat him, and so on. But in training, both Harrington and I, we went up to 130 pounds. It was a rep and a half, if you want. But I don't talk too much about it because it's not recorded, but we did. Harrington was also very, very strong in the chin-up, and that's at a weight— our body weight was 78 kilos, which was pretty good relative strength. And we had, for example, that summer we did a general preparation which was what I would call more of an accumulation one. So we didn't do too much— a true general preparation for us was you do some corrective exercise and then you do your hypertrophy or whatever, you have a high rep training regime. And then so we did the first phase that when we came back, we did an accumulation phase. It was mostly hypertrophy, and if I remember well It was a basic phase. It was— we started the first week, the rep range was 12 to 14, then we went 11 to 13 the second rotation or the second week, and so on like that. So 4 weeks like this will always go down 2 reps per week. And then we did the cluster training after that, which actually destroyed us. And we workout, the phase after the cluster, I don't remember too well because my brain was still mashed by the cluster training, but it was again a pretty standard, if I remember well, again a pretty standard hypertrophy phase, and then we did a pyramid before testing camp. So it was a 5-3-1 workout. The phase before with a proper, obviously a proper taper just before the camp. That's what allowed us to have a peak at camp and then we went for this, we went again after the camp was done and we went back to functional hypertrophy kind of phase and then went on the road and start competing and that's when we had our best, that was the Olympic year, so 1990, end of 1991. And then February was the Olympics in 1992. And but if you look at the year, so 2 years prior to that, we had, uh, Charles made us do stuff like, uh, a lot of 30-01 tempo for the chin-ups, other was, and then change grips, um, some crazy workouts. I can't remember every single workout, but I remember the 30-01, and we even had one time he made us do, uh, That was not the full phase, but it was like just for a challenge, I guess, or he made us do— I remember that the first workout back from the off-season that Meve was schooled, so after it was month of May, he made us do just for fun 30-0-30, one rep for chin-ups. How many did you get? One. Because then if you can do one, then you have to add what we call the Kleenex weight. So we had these small plates, like mini plates, that we put in our pockets, and he made us do— I think he made us do this for 2 weeks in a row or something like that, and then we moved on. But, you know, it was crazy. I don't know if I would ever put anybody through that nowadays, but, you know, you can't— I can't really complain about it because he brought us from being Bob and I, my doubles partner Bob Gasper and myself, we were maybe 15th, 16th, or 18th in the world on the start, and you brought us to the fastest in the world in 4 years. So some of the stuff I think he's starting to admitting it now, it's like, I know in '88, '90, when he first came with us, I think he tested a few different finding that he found himself, and then I think we were his guinea pigs to some extent, but never to compromise our result though.

Yeah, the athlete, you've always got to protect the athlete because a good coach is one that doesn't get their athletes injured.

Yeah, and he was actually, and when he got me anyway, I had a serious injury in my shoulder and a serious injury in my low back. I had a Some people might know this already, but I broke my back when I was 12 years old. And now I say broke my back is my two transverse process. I fell down the stairs and I broke the two transverse process on my L4, and it pushed the vertebrae in one shot, very acute, like the vertebrae approximately 25%, 24% forward. So I had a spondylolisthesis, and they want— my doctors at the time, well, the team doctors wanted to operate and fuse my vertebrae. And they wanted to operate my shoulder because they said all my ligaments were lax and that's why my shoulder was painful. I had chronic pain and it was because it was not properly set in the socket. And then Charles came and did some evaluation on us, very basic, and after a month my shoulder pain was completely gone. And after 8 to 9 weeks my back was almost 100%. What kind of work did he do with you? For my back? Yeah. So that was in '88. A lot of static stuff like back extension static, and then very— he even started us a lot with split squats and stuff like that. And he— I know for me, he gave me deadlifts, but very light, and I had to have perfect form. And then I went to the deadlift, to the squats, but I had absolutely— he was very, very picky on my form. I could not deviate at all. And so it just— and then good mornings. Once I could do my basic back extension stuff, he put me on the seated good mornings, standing good mornings. Again, always making sure that my form was perfect. It was really, well, it was hard on all of us to have good form, to be honest, but me, he always made sure that I was aware that I had to have absolute perfect form on the squats and the deadlift so I wouldn't reinjure my back. And by doing what he said, again, I don't remember every single workout or phases, but doing what he said, I, within like 9 weeks, I was 8 to 9 weeks, I was fine. I could deadlift heavy again, and so that's basically what it was. How's your back now?

Pardon me? How's your back now?

It's good, actually. So I started this in '88. I had x-ray on my back, and that's when the doctors told me you broke your back, and they told me, they said, you lied to us when you made the national team '84. You had a broken back, never told us, which I did not no, because I fell down the stairs a few times. And I, but I remember at 12 years old I had problem walking. It was very painful, but I didn't go to the hospital because whatever, you're 12. And anyway, my mom was tired of going to the hospital with me. But long story short, 15 years after I met Charles, I had to do another X-ray for my hip. Just, I just want to check my bone And I asked the doctor, I said, how's my spondylosis? He goes, what's spondylosis? I said, well, I have a spondylosis. He goes, no. So I— we looked, and actually, with all the years of training, my spondylosis reverted back to about 5, 3 to 5%. He goes, but that's not— that's nothing. Like, that's nothing. A lot of people have that all their life, they have no clue. And then I— and then he saw that my process were whatever crooked, they're not back in their place. And he goes, oh, and then I asked, I told him about me falling down the stairs and so on. He goes, oh, that's pretty impressive. So, but that's all training, but it took over many, many, many, many years, you know. So now my back is actually good. If I— for me, the trick is I have to squat. If I stop squatting, I'm screwed, even if it's just body squat. If I'm too long without squatting at all, then I feel my back. So I have to make sure my strength is good on my posterior chain and my erector spinae and my hips are— my hip flexors are flexible, not too tight, and so on.

Yeah, yeah, I know how you feel because I've got a herniated disc myself, so I have to be extra cautious when doing lifts. You can't get away with anything. I watch some people lift and I'm like, How do you not hurt yourself doing that?

Yeah, same thing with me. I'll see people in the gym doing squats like what Owen Lacey liked to call a pole dancing squat, where they bend forward a lot and they come back with a rounded— they come up with a rounded back. And I was like, if I would do that, I'd be on the floor in pain. There's no way I could get away with that. Yeah, so yeah, I'm the same.

So my boss Mark Ottobre, he works with you, he's been trained by you multiple times now. Basically, when he works with you, he feels great and doesn't get injured. Why do you think that is?

Oi, oi, uh, maybe because he listens to me, number one. But I think it's— that's a good question. Like, I like to go heavy, but again, I'm very, very picky with form, and I always ask Mark to make sure, and he's pretty good too because he does listen to me. So one of the reasons why he does not get injured so much is because he listens to what I say. And then when I say you have to have good form, if you have more than 2 reps in a row where you have bad form, you gotta stop it. Because then the weight is not— it's too much for what your muscle can recruit. So might as well change, stop the exercise and take your rest and do the next set. And I always, I try to do exercises that are outside what he's accustomed to so that you train the muscle in a different manner different angle, and I think it creates good balance. Again, there's no research on this, but I've— again, see that I lived what it was to have a serious injury on my shoulders and on my back, and I lived how to strengthen it properly and being pain-free. So because of that, I'm like, I'm There's some exercise I don't like to do too much or too heavy until you're ready to do them. Okay, when I teach my classes, I always said the first thing you have to do is learn the movement and then you can load the movement. Otherwise, if you load it without not being able to execute it properly, then you are asking for, for injury. So when I design my programs, I make it so that I don't risk injuries for nothing. Yeah. Now, having said that, does it mean that I don't load? I don't believe in lifting heavy? No, I just believe lifting heavy with good technique. Yeah, and there's a time and a place. Yeah, exactly. So do I go crazy if you do one really bad rep? No, the body can take one really bad rep. In most cases without any problem. It's when you do 4 or 5 really bad reps over the full phase and then the phase after that and then the phase after that, that's when you create a, you create a nest or you're investing in injury because your body can only do so many bad reps without creating some trauma or inflammation and so on. So, you know, don't get me wrong, I do believe you have to, and then you have to expose the body to a heavy load load once in a while. If you want to get better, it has to be heavy. But not to the cost of health. That's a big belief of mine.

I think a good tip is the difference between training and performing.

Yeah, yeah. But what does that mean for you though?

So performing would be like doing a one rep max or going to failure, complete failure, where the exercise becomes sloppy.

Yeah, but I still— okay, so when I write my programs, I write them so that you can perform in such a manner once in a while. So for me, I write the program so that Mark, even though he has some issues here and there, that eventually if he We can go, let's say he says, I want to go to a powerlifting competition, or I want to be able to do, without going in a competition, I want to be able to do the heaviest freaking squat ever. Well, then I can, the way I train him is that he will be able to do it once in a while. It's the same thing as anything else. You can only peak so many times. You cannot go for a true 1RM, full out, full exhaustion, every single workout.

Ain't gonna happen. Whereas athletes, once a week they'll perform. There's a big difference between when they train during the week and then perform on the weekend.

Okay, they perform in their sport or they perform in the gym?

I'm talking about performing the sport, but I think it has some applicability.

Okay, so what do you mean applicability? In the weight room or on the field?

No, just it has relevance, meaning that it's performing in general.

Yeah, I mean, you do, yeah, exactly. So you, okay, so I get what you mean now, sorry. So yeah, you have to perform once in a while for sure, but performing as an athlete, for example, in luge, if you take luge for example, the heaviest thing we do in a, beside crashing, but the heaviest thing we do when we do sliding, it's the start. So it's a 100% effort, but the load is minimal to what we're used to do in the gym. So that's why the performance on the field, full-out performance, can be repeated a bit more often than a full-out performance in the gym. Again, unless you're an Olympic lifter and a powerlifter, then that's totally different. That's two beasts that are different, and any other sports in the world because Olympic lifting and powerlifting, you train the exact same way as you compete. You know what I mean?

Yeah, you train heavy quite often and frequently.

Yeah, so then it becomes a bit more— that's why I really respect Olympic lifting coaches because you really have to be on the ball to be able to create the maximum amount of strength the way they do. Like, you have to be really, really, really good at your, at your business. That's why Olympic lifting coaches are— and then if you look at a lot of the training systems, are from Olympic lifting systems for strength, for example. That's interesting. Yeah, maybe I went off a bit of off topic here, but I think it is interesting.

So there's probably some coaches listening. So I've got a question for you in regards to if you were to hire someone or a coach, what would you look for in them? So what would you say you look for in a good coach?

Oh boy, there's a few things. Number one, I like coaches that are very confident but not too cocky, like not to the point where they make other people feel like idiots. I mean, you can have success with that, but for me in my gym right now, I'm talking about my gym now, if you tell me for elite athletes and Olympic athletes, then it's different. But for a gym that I own now, I want someone that is, you know, very knowledgeable, or not very knowledgeable because I can help with that, but someone who's confident in what they know, and they can also communicate to the person what they want them to do. Communication is very important, especially with your public gym, because you have to— it's all about education. So if you have someone who can educate the client, even though they're not as knowledgeable as some other coaches, you can have— like, I've had teachers that are excellent researchers, but man, they're horrible teachers. And it's— you need a teacher, somewhat of a teacher in a weight room. So you have to be able to communicate, to educate your client. And the other thing also is how much exposure they had to training. That's very important. Because that's, for me, it was a very important aspect of my success because I was exposed to a lot of different training systems, like I said earlier. Now, I don't expect them to have done as much as I did, but I always look for someone who has the biggest pool of training systems in his background that they did themselves. So I like people that if they apply, if they come in and they go, well, you know, I did a few months with whatever, Ed Cohen, and then I did another few months, not necessarily internship, but being trained. So Ed Cohen rolled programs for you, or John Meadows is one guy I saw at the Swiss seminar this year. I love the way he looks at programming and program design. Like, I really like his approach. So stuff like that. Now, I'm not saying that John Meadows would apply for my gym, but if you're a coach that has been trained by John Meadows, then that's a big plus for me. If you're a coach that was— if you had a few guys, they had program written for them by John Connor and Owen Lacey, That's also a huge help because I really respect them as coaches. So people like that, if you're able to sit down and do what other people ask you to do, even if they're wrong, even if it's programming like, holy crap, this is horrible. Well, I've trained— another strength that I have is that from 1984, 1988, I was trained not necessarily the right way. There's a lot of stuff we did that was wrong. Now at the time I was angry, but in hindsight, when Charles came in and then also we did all the stuff that was really, really good, I was able to appreciate more the difference between training with different systems that are not really efficient for your sport or yourself, therefore creating discomfort, not necessarily pain or injuries, discomfort, and then not having the results you want, not being as strong as you want, and then not being— so, and then you go with Charles, and then all of a sudden, frick, everything happens the way you thought it should have. And then so it makes you appreciate a bit more. So it's— I think it's good once in a while to do some— to see some bad programming so you understand, okay, now you know what, I know the difference, how it feels to train properly, you know, it feels to train the wrong way. And I remember I told you a comment in Australia, and it kind of marked you a little bit when I said, okay, Rhys, stop using— we were maybe in the— I think you were doing the B exercises. It was 8 sets, and you were at set number 6, and then you were doing your squat, and I said, okay, Rhys, stop using your warm-up weight and lift some weights. And then Only years later I see this comment on Facebook saying that totally destroyed me, but I know what he meant. So it's not that you were training bad, but once you've increased your weight because all of a sudden you have this guy telling you you can lift heavier, you did it and what happened?

Yeah, in your defense, I put 20 kilos extra on the bar my next set.

Yeah, exactly. And that's something that— and that's not that you were trained wrong, is that you didn't— you were not exposed to someone— like for me, I was pushed to my limit and I know the signs of being pushed to the limit. And I saw you and I said, he thinks he's pushing himself because his level of exertion is here, his perception— his perceptive exertion is here, but it's way above where he's at.

I think that was on the last day of the camp. So, yeah, I was just being cautious, but there's a time to be cautious and there's time to get results.

Yeah, but you also, you were also coming up like you were 4 seconds down and you were still coming up on a 1-second tempo on the way up. So I was like, man, there's no way, like, he should be doing at least 2 or 3 seconds because it's, you know, you have to struggle. Yeah, so my point with this is that you appreciate now, and then for sure when you coach people, you're saying to yourself, no, no, no, this guy is slacking off. Like, he's not pushing the way he should be pushing. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you should be good at detecting that now.

Yeah, if you train hard enough yourself, you can see it in other people because you've experienced it.

Yeah, that's why the bad training I had from '84 to '88 was actually somewhat of a good thing in the long run.

Yes. What goes through your head when you sit down to write a program for a client or athlete, Andrei? What's the first thing that goes through your head?

Well, I always— I'll look at weakest point. So I have my own little screening. It's not a quantitative screening, it's a qualitative. So it's all movement pattern based, and from that I can look at what the weakest factor is, and then by working that factor, I know that everything else would come up. So I like to target the weakest factor and the other strength, flexibility, adhesions, whatever. Work on that, and then when that is solved, then I look at what is now the new weakest link, and then I go on from there. So my first— when I have a client, I will— the first thing I'll do is I'll look at what they have done the most the 3 months prior, and then in training phase and exercises, and then I will Basically work their strength or work on the weakest link with methods or systems or movement that they have done rarely or they tend to stay away from. Again, it's just to shock the system or expose the body to a different stimulus to create the better result as quick as possible. I don't know if it makes sense. I know sometimes it makes sense. My wife tells me this sometimes, that it's not because it makes sense in my head that it makes sense to people. So I hope I explained it properly, but that's how I look at it.

No, that makes complete sense. How often would you say that you retest or like do someone's structural balance again after the initial session?

Every single If you want to put it to the extreme, every single set is a test.

Okay, so you're always analyzing. Absolutely.

Yeah, because then what I use, I use, I can, I always use exercises that you will be weak in. So a lot of guys, they hate it because all of a sudden they used to do, uh, you know, whatever, so much weight, and then also they do a similar movement with a bit of an adaptation to it, and they're using 40% of that weight they used to have. And they go crazy. And then, but they get more sore, they get more, and therefore most of the time with this, what happens that they, it, like I said, I target or I force the body to do the movement with the proper load, always the proper load with proper technique, that forces a different adaptation. So that's why I, you know, they also, they get results that they never had before, and they get soreness, and they go, I can't, but a lot of time I'll get emails or phone calls or texts saying, "I feel like such a weakling because I'm using half of what I used to do." Well, yeah, but you're now, you're creating maybe 80% more training results than you used to in the past because now you're doing either a full range of motion or proper technique.

So Yeah, gotta check the ego at the door.

Yeah, most of the time, yeah.

I've got a question here from Adam Glossop. What do you do differently when training for females compared to males? When you're doing their programming, how would you program differently? Programming?

I don't do much, much difference. Programming, if it's a new, brand new female, never trained in her life, ever. I will do probably more, and if you have her counterpart, like a twin male, she might do a bit more reps at the beginning than her twin brother for the same, let's say they have the exact same weaknesses or structural balance, whatever you want. She'll probably do a bit more reps because they respond better to it. Yep. But after a few months, like I would say when they 8 months or depending how often they train, but let's say 8 months, 9 months, or a year, not even a year, like would be probably around 8 months. Yeah, then the rep range becomes the same. That I learned that from Charles actually. He showed it to me, it was really interesting, but the rep range becomes the same. What changes is how I talk to some female and some male because you cannot be as Okay, I don't want to generalize here, but in most cases with a beginner female is that you cannot be as direct or as rough on the edge, if you want, as with a male in general. It's not because they're weaker, they just respond better. Because I've had women that look, I would say, oh, this is weak, but they get super strong. And it's just, I always adapt my coaching style to the person. Like not everybody, like for example, Charles never screamed at me because he knew that if he screamed, I don't respond well to be screamed at. And then he was always talking to me. He knew for me, if he wanted me to train well, he had to say, hey, hey, hey, Andre, just focus, let's go, you can do this. And then I would do it. But like we had a group of 4 when I was training in Luz. It was myself, Harrington Telford, Bob Gasper, my doubles partner, and then Dan Dahl was another guy. We always trained together and he never screamed at us because we did our work. But some of the people on the team though, he would scream. But some people like to be screamed at or talked, you know.

Yeah, you need to get that understanding of your client of what basically drives them.

And when I say, okay, I just want to make something clear. When I say screaming, I'm not saying like screaming obscenities. It's just talking loud and stuff like that.

Yeah, some people like to cheer themselves up, whereas others like to stay calm. It just depends on the person.

Yeah, it's just, you have to adapt to whatever motivates your client to do better.

How many extra reps would you say that you'd start the female with compared to her twin?

Oh, anywhere from 6 to 12. Extra? Yeah, okay, but that's an extreme, okay. So, but at the same time, if the twin brother does 12 reps, I'm not gonna do— I'll rarely do 24 with the female. I would do more like around 18 to 20. Okay. It's just that they, they have a, and they have a way better capacity, or yeah, to handle lactic acid. Female, and that's the vast majority than we do. Yeah, yeah, a whole bunch of different reasons, anywhere from the muscle mass that the male to female to— well, they're designed to give birth, so give birth. It's like, I never gave birth to anybody, anyone, and I'll never do, hopefully. But it's a huge contraction. If you look at the contraction they have if we would have that, we would be crying within probably maybe 20 seconds. Like, we'd be in pain. Like, okay, it would be horrible because we don't have the capacity to handle that.

Yeah, yeah.

So maybe I made some, uh, a lot of female out there saying, no, oh, I like this guy.

So my next question is from Anna. So Anna works in our office. She's basically— so I've started training her and she wants to develop her glutes but doesn't want her legs to grow. What advice would you give her for that?

Okay, so every time a female comes to see me and they said, you know, I want to have long, long muscle or, you know, just toning and so on, I don't want to get big. I always ask them, does your mother look like me? And most of them say no. And then I say, well, then you're not genetically predisposed to be big. Okay, so that's very good. I like that. Yeah, so to make them— so you have to sit them down and say, okay, what— define to me what is big, uh, because there's so many things that can happen. So I, I don't— I've never seen Anna. I'll see her probably next month, but, uh, If she is, you know, what's her percentage body fat? Does she have, is she carrying fat? You don't have to tell me, but you don't want to get in trouble with Anna.

She wouldn't mind, she wouldn't mind. She's 14%.

Okay, okay, that's pretty lean. So what's wrong with a bit of mass? Again, I say a bit, it's a bit, like she's not gonna grow 3 inches around the legs.

Well, for her, she doesn't mind. She actually wants the mass, but she wants it behind her. When I say that, the way she explained it to me was she wants to walk through the door and her bum to come in 3 minutes later.

Okay, so again, that a lot of it is genetic. So you have to look at her without being disrespectful, look at her mom and her dad and say, okay, so is there, is there a potential, and how much of a potential is there? Now, in most cases, if you're gonna activate your glutes, your legs will have to do some work. So it's really hard to activate your glutes without having some sort of hamstring and quad involvement, just especially if you do a compound movement. So, you know, a good exercise, for example, to develop glutes is lunges. Well, if you don't do your lunges, if you don't bend your knee, it's going to be hard to do a lunge.

Would you do a broader lunge then rather than a short one?

Yeah, you could. Yeah, in that case, yes, for sure. Yeah, but then, yeah, I'll just leave it there.

Yeah, because the less the knee bends, I guess the less quad activation you're going to be getting.

Yeah, and the hamstring will also have a bit more— well, yeah, the hamstring will also activate a bit less, a tiny bit less. So, but for sure the quad will be a bit less also. Yeah. Okay. But again, it's not— you have the rectus femoris that's going to be activating. So, um, yeah.

So just be realistic with it.

Yeah, I mean, it's really, uh, it's not like a bicep, you know. The glutes does extension of the hip, so it's a compound movement in most cases. I mean, you can do Romanian deadlift, but after a while you'll have— you won't have the the training in return, the effect of training, because you're going to adapt to your Romanian deadlift and even good mornings you'll do okay, you know, but it really limits again, yeah, so you need variation and I mean you can do, you know, again you do your just your Romanian deadlift, your good mornings and some back extensions and you will affect— and you can see how much of an increase you have in your gluteus hypertrophy. And then, but it's going to stagnate at one point, and then when you get there, then you'll have to do some lunges and some other exercises like full squats and stuff like that, deadlifts.

So there's going to be periods of time where you might do some quad work, yeah, just to break it up.

Yeah, again, it will be Surprising again also, you know, the glutes might gain a lot more mass compared— in comparison to her quad and hamstring.

So far I've just basically changed her squatting technique, so it's a bit more of a low bar, hip dominant squat. And just got to really focusing on activation because it's very hard to grow a muscle you can't actually activate or flex.

Yeah, it's true. So, but you're right with having a lower bar on the back, that's good. And then, you know, like I said, if you do some standing good mornings or Romanian deadlifts, it will help also. Yeah, but even that, there's so much, so many other muscles involved. So, for example, with the Romanian deadlifts, a lot of people it's more of a hamstring, like the hamstring has a huge part in it more than the glutes for either inhibition and stuff like that. So you really have to make sure that the glutes fire properly.

Yeah, and that, that would come down to a lot of the time, yes, biomechanics, but also being able to activate that muscle. Yeah, yeah, totally. So I've got a question here from Anit. His question is, we tend to know as trainers why we make changes to our programs, or why they've been made, but as a coach, how do you know what those changes should be? It's a very broad question. Is there a—

So what's the difference between a trainer and a coach? Is it a personal trainer? Yeah, I'm asking, he says because as—

so repeat the question. So basically, when we make changes to our programs, He's basically saying that when you make a change, what do you look for to make that change to someone's program? I guess, how would you periodize your programming? What kind of indicators do you look for that, oh, this program will be good for this person?

Yeah, that's not a simple question to answer. There's a lot of factors. But if you want to keep it simple, I try to pick training systems and exercise that will challenge the body. Like, yeah, it's a difficult answer.

Do you have go-to systems that you tend to use for different, I guess, different—

Yeah, I used to, I used to have that, but That changed a lot since, like, you know, when I was teaching in your class there. What happened with the years, I realized that what I do to— my go-to programs will be the programs you've done the least. That would be the simplest way to answer that question. So for you, if you come and see me, to create a shocking effect for you, I would say, send me what you've done last 6 months and then I'll write something that you've never done before and you'll say, holy crap, this is— I'm basically getting a big secret here, but it's not really a secret, but then you have to know what the trick with this though is to know, okay, so I gotta shock him, but to what extreme and what system is going to be the best to shock him for that. So that's the, that's the, the art. So you have the science, which is shock the system, and the art of coaching, which, or running a program, which is, okay, well, now which system am I going to use? My go-to system, to answer your question, in the past, if you would have met me before 1998, I would have said, oh, So for strength, the goal system to shock, the goal system would be 1-6. For hypertrophy, 6-12-25, and then some triple drops. Functional hypertrophy, just a normal pyramid. Those are my system. It worked, it worked really well. I had really good results, but now I have even especially for advanced trainees, people that have trained for many years, I have different systems to use now that are, that are again depending on them, what they've done. So there's not, there's no go-to system that I'll use really well. I'll do my Erdna System 1. That one I like to use a lot actually, to be honest. And if you want to know what it is, then you have to come to my courses.

I highly recommend Andre's course. Yeah, thank you. Pleasure. What program systems have you had the best success with? Like, so we spoke about hypertrophy and relative strength and functional hypertrophy.

What would be fat loss? You want in the past or now? Both. Okay, in the past would be GBC for sure, German Body Comp, and now I like to use German Body Comp, a bit of a modification, but it's, it's going to be— I will couple it with modified strongman training. There's a— I'm not trying to sell my courses, but there's another course I call, it's Modulation of Energy System and Relative Strength. For optimal body composition. It's a 1-day course, but I talk about how I use energy system training— sorry, energy system principles, sorry— with using resistance training. So it's like, would be almost like using modified strongman training, but instead of using reps and stuff, it's all timed. And I like to use that for weight loss with the German Body Comp. So I work both different systems in a manner that creates more, a better weight loss.

Because that way they're not limited to the amount of reps, they're limited to the time, so they can work as hard as they can.

But always, always, always with proper technique, or a minimum. There's a minimum of technique I want to see. Like, they cannot break down. I don't want to— well, I was going to say something here, but there's another— there's this very popular system out there that sometimes applied really, really well. Like CrossFit, I think, is a good system, but the bad thing about CrossFit is that the instructors are not always as knowledgeable as you wish they could be. Some guys, they do a marvelous job with CrossFit. Like, they do unbelievably well because they know what they're doing, you know. But so for me, it would be somewhere like something in the same line of thought, but again, me, the technique is very important. So again, just to save people from having injuries.

Yeah. To improve and be the best coach possible, what courses or resources would you recommend besides I know that you're coming to Enterprise for the Wolfpack program.

Yeah, well, for sure, that would be one of the best ones.

Absolutely. So let's call that number one. Yeah. What, what other two resources would you recommend, or courses? Maybe one for, for nutrition and one for any another topic that you might want to cover.

Okay, in a general I know some people don't like that, but I think it gives a good base. Precision Nutrition, I think, is a good, a good something, just a good base to have for nutrition. For strength training— oh, hold on, pardon me. Oh yeah, Dr. Brian Walsh, actually, Metabolic Fitness. That's a good one also, very, very good, that one.

So what's their specialty?

Metabolic fitness.

What's the specialty of metabolic fitness?

Well, I think it's just again understanding nutrition to a deeper level. Okay, so it's their nutrition-based overall, overall nutrition course, but it's a bit more comprehensive if you want. Like, it's really well explained and it's well done. Susan, my wife, took it and it's Actually, that would probably be number one, actually. And then for courses, there's a few good ones out there, but for the things for me, I think once you have your basic course, I tend to tell people go see Go do internships with coaches. Like, there's a few coaches that I really respect because the reason— once you have your basic courses, or even if you don't, if you go to these guys, they'll give you a good basic and then they give you a different perspective of training. So it's a bit different than mine, a bit different than Charles. So there's guys that I like, like for example, John Connor, Owen Lacey from the IRIS Strength Institute. I think they give some good, really, really good courses on strength training, nutrition also. There's Tom Crudgington in Bath, England. I really love it. He has a really good approach on training. It's different, different than most people, but I think if you can take his system or his way of training people and you can marry it with what you do, it makes your product even that much better. There's Ben Prentice in the States, Preston Greene. I really like their way of approaching things. Like Ben Prentice, especially for a business aspect of it, I think he's unbelievable. He is so successful with what he does that it's something you want to you want to adopt in your business, I think. Preston Greene, I think he's really good on a whole bunch of different aspects. He's in the States also, and he's changing university quite a bit. I'm not sure which one he's at now, but if you Google Preston Greene, you'll know where he is. He's really, really good with training teams and again using system to train teams and For example, basketball. Basketball players, we all know they're tall, so he's got some good approach to training people with really long limbs. Another guy I like in your country is Dieter Roylance. I think he's got some good, really good approach to coaching too.

Yeah, he specializes in Olympic swimmers, doesn't he?

Well, for a while, but he's been doing now— he actually was training this snowboarder from Australia that did really well in Canada anyway. He was doing really well in the circuit. He's got— he's able— what I like with Dieter is he took his expertise with swimmers and was able to apply it and translate it to a whole bunch of different use in his gym with general population or different sport also. Like, he's the only guy— I used to tell in classes, you'll never see a shredded swimmer. And I remember he was in the class, he goes, yeah, yeah, you can. So, no, you can't. He goes, yeah, I'll tell you, my swimmers are ripped. Like, well, I'd like to see pictures. And sure enough, he proved me wrong. Like, he— so the whole supplementation nutrition, I think Dieter is really, really good at it also. Obviously, Mark, your guys are really good with— I think you guys really focus on our competitors and—

yeah, boxers, which is—

yeah, you see, so for me, that's really— that's something I struggle with. So because I'm more with the hyper— like, not that you guys are not high performance, but you train like a high performance athlete, but you don't do performance on the field where either there's contact, you can't, it's a non-contact sport. That's a good way to put it. Anyway, it might be some contact in the backstage, but you know, so for me it's more athletic performance I'm really good at, where for you guys like posing and stuff like that, I'm really, I'm not an expert at all, and I have no problem admitting it. I've had in the past a few clients that were competing in figures and stuff like that, and I did good, but again, I had to do a lot of phone calls and ask people that I respect, and that's before I knew Mark Ottobre, I respect in the industry that I would say, okay, what do you do with this? What do you do? So I had— it was a really big learning process for me. What was it again? You asked for nutrition and coaching?

Yeah, and program design.

Program design, for sure John Connor. This guy really impressed me with his knowledge of designing program. Obviously Owen Lacey also, well, you have Charles Poliquin, but I know Those are obvious people. There's a few guys out there, like even John Meadows, like I said, I saw what he was doing at the Swiss seminar and I was really impressed with the way he designed his program. So if anybody can take— I don't know if he does internship or mentorship, but for sure the way he was talking at the seminar, he's open to it and I think he's really good at making his programs. I like his approach, and that's something to look at. I know I'll look into it more when I have time, which I don't know when that's going to be, but when I have time, I'd like to sit down with him for sure and ask him questions on what he bases his programs on and so on.

Yeah, I actually did a podcast with him as my first podcast. He's very down to earth. Yeah.

Love the guy. He's really— I really, really like him. So, well, I'm hopefully I'll be able to— I'm trying to bring him here, you know, in Canada.

And his body speaks for itself. Oh yeah, yeah, exactly.

It's like, you know, he really, you know, walked the talk for sure.

Where would you say that you go to find your information to further your knowledge? Do you have certain websites that you check on a regular basis or anything like that?

Now I go— well, I mean, I always have Charles, but— and then nothing against Charles, but for me, I've communicated with him so much at some time. What he says, it's not that it's nothing new for me. There's always some really great information, but in the last maybe 15 years, I tried to go outside of that just to expand my to get different view on the same business.

Yeah, find a different way to skin the cat.

Yeah, so for research, I'll go now— well, I've been having— his name is Matt Jordan. He was at the University of Calgary here in Canada, and now he's at Winsport. It's a huge facility we have here, and this guy, as far as research, he's top-notch. Anything about knee rehab, knee health, knee training, I call him all the time. He's a— and he's— the thing is, I used to mentor him a bit in the past. He used to be a speed skater, and he grew— I know he knows Charles and stuff, but he really took his knowledge that he learned from me, myself, and Charles, and developed his own his own world or his own beliefs and training, and he's doing his PhD right now. So Matt Jordan is something that actually, if you guys are interested in anything about knee, he's the guy to go to. So he's at, like I said, he's at— you can Google him, you'll see his name, you can contact him through that.

And for supplementation, who would you recommend?

Right now, my 3 top guys are not necessarily in that order, but Christian Maurice is— I love talking to the guy. He's so— his applied knowledge is unbelievable, and he's one of the guys— he's the only guy that I know of, okay, I don't want to take anything away from other people, but that I know of that was able to take the BioSignature or the BioPrint and really create a system with it that really works well. And I really respect his knowledge. I think he's one of the— I love talking to the guy and exchange discussion with him for sure. Owen Lacey from ISI again, and Dr. Eric Serrano. I think Dr. Eric Serrano is like— I've met him finally last summer, and man, his knowledge is fantastic, and the way he delivers it in the class is awesome. I don't know if you ever heard him talk, but he's— there's some— there's a video of him that they recorded at the Swiss seminar this summer in Toronto, so you can— that's also on YouTube, so you can— Dr. Serrano, you can listen to him. He's very— I respect the man. He's very knowledgeable, and I was fortunate enough that I'll be actually teaching with him. He's going to be helping me with my Hypertrophy Academy that I'll be teaching in Gainesville, Georgia on March 21st, 22nd, 23rd. And I know I sound like I'm selling the course, but I am. But he's just— because it's going to be probably one of the best Hypertrophy Academies I'll ever do, I think. Because he's going to be there talking about nutrition and supplementation, and he's like— I'm really, really fortunate to have him because he's so busy. And anybody who— like, it would be worth the travel. Like, it's— he's fantastic, and I'm also fantastic, so both of us together are going to be great. Sorry, I'm joking, somehow, somewhat. But those 3 guys are probably my top 3 guys. Again, I always— Charles was always my mentor and I respect him tremendously and I take it for him he's a shoo-in as far as his knowledge is unbelievable. But again, like I said, I'm trying to get outside of that a little bit, but who else in nutrition? My wife.

And you also— Do you still refer your clients out to Dan Garner, is it?

Yeah, well, to be honest, lately no. Dan's good, he's doing his own stuff, which is great. I think he's doing really well, but right now I've recruited other people to help me out and it's good working with them. Like, for example, the nutrition guy I have access to is Christian Maurice right now, so And again, not to take anything away from Dan, but Christian is a class of his own. He's above a few people. So, yeah.

So, yeah. Alright, let's move on. So you're a big fan of teaching people how to move, then teaching them how to train, and then basically finally training them hard. Can you elaborate on this? This is a methodology that you've come up with, I think. I heard it from you.

Yeah, I don't know if I came up with it. I'm really cautious in saying that anybody right now come up with anything because the fitness industry has been out there so many years that— I'm not saying I came up with it. but I'm definitely promoting it really, really hard, and that came up from talking to different people like Isvan Bali, who's a strength coach, used to be a strength coach for the Alpine ski team years ago with Charles actually, and then him and Richard Wade, they developed this long-term development program in Canada that takes, you know, they take kids from toddler almost, and then bring them up all the way to adulthood. And what would be the— so from them, you know, I've learned many, many things. Also from Kevin Darby, how he really— Kevin Darby really made me more aware of, you know, when you do a bicep curl, it's not really a bicep curl, it's a movement. So there's so many muscles involved, sorry, doing a bicep curl to stabilize your shoulders stabilize your wrist and bending your elbow, you know. So it's a movement. So I'm really strong, and a few years ago, it came up, it came very obvious to me, how do you want to load a squat if you don't know how to squat? So, and this came up, like I've had people, and I won't name any names, but in the past that they were Testing camp, they had to do— people had to do squats. And then they had newcomers that knew how to squat, and they would load the bar like crazy, which was horrible. And I was thinking, this is something not right here. Like, this is— there's no way this can be happening. So I'm really, really, like you said, a big believer in learning the movement, then you add resistance to the movement, and then you load it to proper RM. So, yes, I guess I don't want to say I developed it, but I'm definitely a big promoter of it.

Yeah, so Mark, my boss and owner of Enterprise Fitness, started working with you, and he also, he always talks about the fact that you got him to do split squats for his mobility for so long, and he's Squats are impeccable now. So can you just touch on why split squats are so beneficial?

Well, it's because the split squats will allow you to really facilitate strengthening whatever leg is in front, and it stretches to some extent the leg that's behind you. So if you have any issue with hip flexors, adductors, like they're tight hip flexors, tight adductors, tight external rotators of the hip. The split squats will take care of so many different issues if it's done properly that it is, it is the go-to exercise for the lower body if you have any type of normal structural imbalance or muscle, you know, different muscle strength from left to right. So any discrepancy between your right leg to your left leg, and even discrepancy between your agonist and antagonist. So unilateral work is always better to address any of those situations. And the split squats is going to be, like I said, probably one of the exercises I use the most to solve, I would say, about 80 to 90% of the issues of lower body. Again, has to be done properly. And I find that a lot of people, they rely on— their go-to exercise is a squat, but the squat is not the end-all be-all of everything. If you do too many squats, you will get tight in some areas, and then this will affect you in your performance or in everyday life and so on in different manner. So that's why you have to create some variation. Once you do the split squats, then every— it promotes that much more unilateral strength, if you want, and also flexibility. So you go deeper.

What kind of a rep range and tempo would you start people off on and then progress them from there?

Well, now I've learned my lesson, but they will be anywhere from 4 4 reps to 12 for beginners. If they do 4 reps, it will be more than likely a slow eccentric and concentric tempo, so it'll be at 3:03 or 4:04. And the reason why is that I like doing slow tempo like that for a split squat with beginners because it gives them time. They hate it because it's not easy at all, but it gives them time to learn the movement. and then it gives me time to correct them as they move. So if your tempo is a 4-0-4-0, it gives me 8 seconds per leg, per rep, to correct things. Instead of doing— if you do a 3-0-1-0, it's only 4 seconds. Sometimes it's too short. So with beginner, like people who don't know, they don't understand the movement, they've never done it properly, it's I love to go back on a very slow concentric tempo.

Yeah, so if someone was having a hard time learning with a very basic tempo like a 4-0-1-0 and they're still not getting the movement and not listening to you, just give them a 4-0-4-0 just so you can spend a bit more time with them. Yeah, and it's—

the brain can it's more difficult for the brain to cheat. If you go quick, because most people, if you say, okay, do a 3-0, 3-0, well, they'll go down in 1 second or 2 seconds and back up in, you know, in 1 second. So that's why if you go 4, they go, then all of a sudden 4, they go, 4, oh, that's long. So then they, it seems like they, it's setting their brain up for doing a proper movement. Yeah, and then you're there to correct them.

Depending, depending on the client, I've found that sometimes programming that extra second makes a big difference. Like, say for example, when you're doing a rowing movement, pausing at the, at the end position, I found that if you give them a 1-second pause there, it becomes a zero. They don't really pause at all. But if you give them a 2-second pause, they will pause.

Yeah, so for example, with the rowing, it's a really good example, Rhys, is that I will use, like, in the past, people that I would have some mild back issue, I would use a rowing to rehab that or address the issue. So I would do it, it would be a 2, sorry, 2-0-1-3 tempo. So when they have a pause of 3 seconds by the hips or the belly button, you can actually physically take their shoulders going, hey, shoulders back. So you can take the shoulders back and you can move them in proper position on their paws. So I use that a lot more now than I used to for sure in the past. Like I would say now since 2003, I've been using that type of paws and slow tempo. Again, this is for people that are general population. You can do the same thing with high performance athlete, but if they have to compete, if you only have 4 weeks to do slow tempo concentric is not recommended at all. That's not the best way to, to help them out. But if you have a high performance athlete, you have 16 weeks with them, then the first few, the first 4 weeks, you can do whatever you want with them. It will, it will not affect their performance. But I like to do those slow tempo for sure. Yeah, yeah. —and pauses. So on the back extension, for example, that's another one. I do a back extension. Now I love using a 4-second, 6-second, 8-second pause at the top.

And for how many reps would that be? Pardon me? How many reps would you do if, say, they're doing an 8-second hold at the top?

Oh, you do maybe 4 to 6. That's it. Okay, well, with 8 seconds at the top, I would Probably 4 would be probably a good one because you have to understand that they're— and again, see, this is where you get in— people will go and have someone who's overweight, he's got a big belly, and they'll give him 8 seconds pause. You cannot do that. That's the thing, you have to be careful with that. You know, that's why you have to use a 45-degree angle or maybe a 60-degree angle back extension instead of a flat. So you have to be careful, people out there. So don't give 8-second pause with someone who's got a huge beer belly. Yeah. Because that's a lot of resistance to hold up for 8 seconds, just so you know. Yeah. So yeah, so again, it is a science of training and the art or the, not the practical knowledge of training.

So, and some people forget about the, the ability to apply it and they just assume. Exactly. What's one thing that you would say separates champions from everyone else?

As an athlete, you mean, or as a coach? Champion coach or champion athlete? Let's go champion athlete. Athlete? I would say dedication and commitment and The psychological profile, like the belief that you can, that you're, you can do it. That's the biggest. Once you get to the Olympics, the one thing I noticed, and you notice, I even my first Olympics, even though it was a big freaking circus as far as there's so many things happening, that you notice that at the end of the day, it's everybody there were pretty much equal. It's just your psychological profile or approach or whatever you want, development, whatever you want to call it, or strength, that is a difference. Like, you'll see people that are there, they're strong, they have the talent, but they're not as driven. So those are what we call the Olympic jacket guys. They want to have the jacket, but they don't necessarily want to be the top in the world. And then you'll see the guys that are driven. They believe they can win the gold, and they will, or they'll do everything to win it. And if they don't, it's because— it's not because they didn't try, it's because something happened that day was not their day. But the Again, it goes back to the belief, to believe that yes, you know what, I can be the top in the world. Yeah, it's a huge difference.

It's the first step, that's for sure.

Yeah, and that attitude is also in the gym. Like, if you look in the gym, people that do the little bit extra, you know, they say, fuck this, I can't, you know what, there's no way I can. They'll turn around, they say no, no, I can do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. They might have a bit of a doubt, but right away, they'll, within maybe 10 seconds in their rest, they'll say, no, no, you know what, fuck this. Sorry about the F-word, but they'll say, screw this, I'll do this, and I'm gonna do it if it kills me. And then most time it doesn't kill them, and they do better. Like, you know, when I was in '84, In '86, I realized I really had a good chance of making the Olympics and doing really well. I stopped working. I had a good amount of money in the bank because I was supposed to be a pilot. So I saved up a lot of money when I was younger, and then I had $15,000 left, and I said, you know what, I'm not going to work. I'm going to I'm going to focus on training and recovery. I'm going to do everything I can, and that's what I did. I ended up with zero money in my bank account, but I was in the Olympics, and I did this in 4 years, which is pretty rare. Usually it's an 8-year cycle, but me, I mean, for different reasons. I had a really good sport background. I did judo, which I think was probably the best thing I've ever done in my life, judo and gymnastics, and I cycled across Canada in 1982 on my bike. Pedal, and then that was 4,200-some kilometers. And so the determination in my head was there, and I gave everything because I didn't want to be at the— miss not making the Olympics and going back and saying, fuck, you know, if I would have done this, I would have been good. So by giving everything I had, I knew that if I did not make it, it's not because I did not give everything I had. It's because somebody else out there was better than me. And I had no— I didn't want to have any regrets, so I gave. And that's what you see with people that are champions. They'll give everything they got because they believe they can, and they will give their 100% as much as they can. I hope that answers your question.

Yeah, yeah, no, that's a very good answer. So thank you for coming on the show, Andre. It's coming up to an hour and a half, so we've definitely covered some massive content. How can the listeners best follow you to keep your wisdom coming their way?

Well, they can come to my courses. That would be a great thing. That's when I can explain things way better and give proper knowledge. Other than that, Facebook. I'm becoming better at it. They can go to my Facebook page and then they'll see the videos. I try to do now once a week just a little capsule, a video of an exercise or something that I think people can benefit from. There's also my website, www.calgary— uh, ccsccalgary.com, and there's also some information there, especially on courses, and I'll I'm putting more videos now of exercise on my website, and I'm slowly, slowly, very slowly going into Instagram, but mainly it's gonna be Facebook.

So you've started on Instagram now?

Well, my wife's trying to get me into it. I'm really bad at it. I'm 53 years old. I know it's not a good excuse, but I'm having difficulty with all this social networking stuff, but I'll try to— I'm focusing more on— I'm liking more and more Facebook now. I'm understanding it a bit more and I'm enjoying it a bit more, so I'll do more. I'll focus on Facebook and I'll go Instagram slowly.

What I found with Instagram is you can actually transfer a lot of the content onto Facebook straight away. But the only problem is when you do a video, they only allow you like 15 seconds at most.

Yeah, and me, I'm really, really bad at keeping it that short. Like, I'm really bad. I need to talk and explain things. I'm old-fashioned, sorry. It's a good quality to have. Yeah, so I'll go with Facebook now, and that will probably be the best way for me, for people to get a hold of me and so on.

Thank you as always for listening. I highly recommend Andrei's courses, having experienced his Hypertrophy Academy myself. I personally put on 3.6 kilos over the 4-day period with basic supplementation and nutrition. Oh, and of course Andrei's cheeky wit of good warm-up set when you think you've done your first working set. Check out our website for more information at melbournepersonaltrainers.com or on our hotline 1300 887 143. Remember to subscribe by downloading the eWeighter Apps eBook, which is full of information to keep your knowledge-thirsty brains crawling.