You know a seminar is great when it takes time for the information to sink in. You start to get flashbacks of new exercises and ideas you didn’t write down. Then you randomly let out a loud “A-HA” throughout the week in the middle of a session, its the kind of “A-HA” that gets your clients worried because they know whats coming! Last weekend I attended a truly unique seminar at Peak Performance NYC that left me with plenty of information to digest. The guys at Peak really outdid themselves on this one. It was a quality, highly professional seminar, that was super informative, truly delivered and went beyond expectations. When you get two of the greatest minds in this business together for a day, knowledge bombs are bound to drop and trainers are expected to learn, Coach Dos and Joe Dowdell altered the industry on this day with their game changing insight and motivation. To say that this seminar was part “Hands-On” is an understatement. It was literally part lecture, part “Get your Butt Professionally Kicked On”! A true training and learning experience unlike any other I have been to. Below is the official review!
Coach Robert Dos Remedios – Program Design from the Ground Up (lecture), Choosing the right training tools from your Toolbox (Butt Kicking Hands On)
Coach Dos is a world reknowned strength coach who works at College of the Canyons in Southern California, he adds an interesting mix to our industry with his straight talk and down to earth attitude about strength training. The lecture portion was deeply informative and covered many aspects to the thought processes of how he designs strength programs. He really made sure we all saw how it applies to us as trainers. A part of his lecture included pointing out some really bad programs that were actually being run at well known schools, it was surprising to see what happens at top levels, and just how straight up crappy some of the programming can be. Huge shout out to all the trainers and coaches who were there, they really got to understand and see what a bad program is, and Coach Dos was gracious enough to let us into his head and see what makes the components of a good well balanced and structured program. Everyone in attendance had something to take with them to better themselves and this industry!
Coach Dos’s talk on work capacity interested me a lot because it is tough to get some general population clientele to understand “HARD WORK” what it is and how to get there. Pretty much the all encompassing principle of getting ANY results are HARD WORK and OVERLOAD. Here are come quotes he uses to motivate his athletes:
- “The harder you work, the harder it is to give up.”
- “It’s not where you start, its where you finish.”
And of course . . .
- “Go hard or GO HOME!” (One of my personal favorites!)
He brought home how it is truly ALL about your mindset, at the end of the day – get your mind ready to DO WORK!
Get Your Butt Kicked Hands-On Session
His hands on portion got everybody working seriously hard! He must have gone through about 4-5 different Cardio Strength Circuits from his recent book (Definitely check it out for some great training ideas!)
Im not giving away all the secrets here, you are just going to have to see him for yourself! I can say however that first of all some of the exercises were completely new to me, and I thought I had seen everything! Secondly, his thought process when designing these circuits is serious. The flow of each circuit really hit the whole body and everyones heart rates way up there. Excellent job Coach Dos!
Needless to say, lunch was well deserved!
( . . . As everyone heads out for lunch, there was Joe Dowdell in the background meticulously setting up equipment smirking all the while and telling everyone not to eat too much . . . he seriously had something VERY special planned!)
Joe Dowdell – Modified Strongman Training for Fat Loss and Performance (Lecture) and Strongman Implements and Protocols (The Royal Ass Kicking of a Hands-On Session)
Founder and Co-Owner of Peak Performance NYC Joe has been around the game for quote some time. This is the second seminar he did at Peak recently and he really killed it. The information presented was top notch from a man who is in the trenches like we are, there are too many “experts” out there who dont even train people anymore and give out advice, Joe still keeps it real, still trains people and understands the struggle!
His lecture on Modified Strongman Training was directly applicable to what we do working with the general pop. A few points that stood out about Strongman Training:
- It is highly TRANSFERRABLE, training like a strongman (or woman) builds the type of strength that translates to real life activities. Such as how farmers carries might help a housewife carry grocery bags.
- It has a Low Learning Curve – Strong man trianing is EASY to teach! It could be as simple as saying “Pick this up and walk.” or “Push this sled to the end and bring it back.” – Simple, easy, effective!
- It is excellent for body composition changes – you can get some highly effective work done with pretty decent loads and a fairly low risk of injury. Sounds all good in my book!
The Royal Ass Kicking of a Hands-On Session
This was by far one of the most SERIOUS ass busting hands on sessions I have ever witnessed at any seminar EVER! Due to an injury I could not participate so I lived vicariously through the other attendees and helped to cheer them on!
One thing that makes Peak Performance a truly unique place is the fact that they have ALL the toys imaginable. And Joe whipped out EVERY SINGLE MOTHER F*CKIN toy in that place! I looked at the program he planned for the day and thought, there is NO WAY every one is going to do ALL of that . . . boy was I ever wrong!
Some of the “Toys” included:
- Sleds
- Prowler
- Farmers Bars
- Slosh Pipes
- Atlas Stones
- Sledgehammers
- Ropes . . . and MORE!
He was able to organize each of these into a circuit that accommodated about 40 people going to WORK on each circuit! Truly an impressive sight!
All in all, it was an excellent, top notch seminar that delivered information that was directly applicable. I had to lierally let the information marinate for a couple of days before I started applying some of the concepts. My clients and athletes have some new circuits to look forward to for their fall programs! Thanks to Coach Dos and Joe Dowdell for doing a killer job! Looking forward to the next one!
Stay strong,
Joey
P.S. I was injured the day of the seminar so I took a TON of video – check it out at facebook.com/joeysgymclass
