Australian Fitness Podcast

Another collaborative effort with my mate Craig Harper (The You Project).  We cover most aspects of fitness including Strength, Power, Muscular Endurance, Speed, Aerobic Fitness, Flexibility, Agility, and so on.   If you are looking for some guidance on the general approach to obtaining any or all of these, these Episodes should go some way to answering these questions for you.  For further information or assistance here are some social media sites:@russell_jarrett1 / @whiteboardlessons / @jayferruggia / @lukahocevar 

Hosted by Craig Harper @whiteboardlessons and The YOU PROJECT Podcast.  Shared on @australianfitnesspodcast.  Contributors - Craig Harper, Brad Cunningham, and Russell Jarrett @russell_jarrett1.

Richard Beddie, CEO of Exercise NZ. Essentially this guy is the guy who dictates policy, procedure, and direction for ALL of the Fitness Industry in NZ. Richard Beddie is a jet, he's the guy you want in charge. Sharp, passionate, pragmatic, a visionary.......and can really articulate what he wants to be done and how to go about it. We talked about some really current and interesting topics in fitness, training, industry direction, Covid......this chat went everywhere. Enjoy

Australian Fitness Podcast - Episode #45I last spoke with Jay Ferruggia on Episode #20 of the podcast.Jay is a gentleman that's been working with humans at the elite levels and general population groups for many many years and has built himself an incredible reputation as a person who leaves no stone unturned in the pursuit of optimizing his client's physical performance, health, and wellness.When Jay speaks his dedication to this and his extensive body of knowledge is self-evident.We talked a little bit about how he's managed his current situation and challenges to business, about his approaches, and about his philosophies on helping people achieve their best physical outcomes.Jay is a guy who has a very clear and distinct idea of where he can add value, and in my opinion, is a true professional and someone who seeks perfection in the pursuit of a result.  His resume of work and the people he has worked with and learned from is an incredible list of the who’s who of physical improvement. No doubt Jay is now

Craig Harper, Speaker, agent of change, author, podcaster, business owner, and Ph.D. Candidate - seriously, how many balls can one guy have in the air at once?  We talked about Strength training and unwrapped a few different goals and scenarios and age brackets and how your training might change depending on those variables.If you want a bit more of Craig, (let's be honest, who wouldn't, you can listen in to his Podcast:The You Project OR you can follow him on Instagram @whiteboardlessons.

Australian Fitness Podcast Episode #43Samantha Jackson was a late starter to the Fitness game - she’s made up ground quickly.  Originally from a high-level executive corporate career, she decided she wanted to assist people at a very face-to-face operational level.  So she transitioned to being a coach - chewing her way through numerous qualifications simultaneously and then launching her career.This skyrocketed when through a chance interaction with Mel Gibson she elevated her street cred very quickly by whipping (figuratively speaking) this notorious hard-working, hard-living man into shape.It’s a cool story.But beyond that, Sam is a well-qualified, experienced, passionate, and highly driven Coach.  She approaches her clients with a healthy mix of empathy and hardness - don’t waste my time, cause I’m all in!I love her honesty, she clearly reads people well and certainly knows the buttons to push and angles to take in order to produce a result.  I was super impressed with this lady and I hope you enjoy our c

Ian O’Dwyer is one of those unique individuals that doesn’t fit into any particular box or have any specific title or approach to his work.  Instead, he watches and observes and then combines his unique ability to analyze movement with an outstanding knowledge of anatomy and human movement to produce outstanding outcomes.  I’ve watched him remove people's pain and limitations literally within minutes, to this day I can’t quite explain it, it’s a form of dark magic I’m sure, and I know many AHP’s are frustrated and confused by how he manages to do this.  But he does and he continues to be a much sought-after clinician, coach, PT, therapist.  I can’t even describe him correctly - but I do know that he is worth listening to and watching him work.  Enjoy my chat with Ian, the Influencer of Movement @feel.soma @russell_jarrett1

Kevin Toonen - Elite operator in two Worlds.Kevin Toonen has an extensive and diverse background in physical preparation.  Having spent 20 years in the Australian Military he was responsible for his own physical preparation but also elite operators in the special forces.  He has now taken that knowledge and skillset and implemented it @98gymsydney with his business partner Chris Feather.In the Podcast, we cover a lot of valuable ground, a lot of around how his experiences and the culture he has been around for so many years has shaped the performance mindset of his gym.  In fact, he sums it up with quotes like “Performance before Aesthetics” and “Our gym is a safe place to fail”.I really enjoyed his perspective, concise, refreshing, simple, but powerful.  I hope you enjoy this one too.

Christina reached out to me on the Podcast email and threw a curveball.  Essentially, she asked, as a newbie PT, currently going through her qualifications, could she do a Podcast with me, but flip the scenario somewhat and ask me some questions about becoming part of the industry and getting qualified.  Christina’s thoughts were that if she had these types of questions and concerns then so too would others.  Well, how right she was, in fact, when I look back at what we discussed, those very questions are the same sorts of things that I thought about when I was first entering the industry back in the ’90s.  I guess it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise really.  We all stress about the same career choices, and decisions that we are faced with.  So Christina, well done, her first Podcast as both an interviewee and interviewer.  She passed with flying colors.  I think she’ll do just fine as a PT, look out for her.@kindlyngfit @yesfitnessvic 

Vicky Kuriel - Real Food Dietician - Part 2Vicky comes back on the show, the previous Episode is #33, to discuss basic questions and confusion around current nutrition trends and practices.  What I like about Vicky is that, like me, she tends to try and strip things back to basics, explain them with a common-sense approach but supported by a healthy dose of science, data, and evidence over a long period of time actually practicing her craft.  There’s more valuable content in this Episode, I hope you get something valuable from it.

Craig Harper and I have known each other for nearly 30 years.We’ve worked together in elite sport, I worked for him in my first PT role and we’ve been business partners in our own PT centre.We’ve remained good mates all of that time and whenever we sit down to do a podcast, it’s a bit like to old cowboys sitting around a campfire discussing the good old times and how it used to be done ‘back in the day’.Truth is though, between the two of us we’ve got over 60 years of field experience, training bodies and minds and enhancing physical performance.Tens of thousands of PT sessions between us, tens of thousands of hours spent working with all sorts of teams and individuals, from General Population through to elite athletes and everyone in between.We had so much to discuss, we had to cut our Science of Exercise Episode into two parts.In these Episodes we talk progressive overload, program design, finding the right ‘dose’, how and when adaptation happens, training intensity, recovery, over-training, periodization,

Sally Bailey has a Human Movement degree and a Masters in Strength and Conditioning.  In the Podcast we talk about her current role at a very prestigious school in the heart of Melbourne.  Sally is responsible for the development and direction of a program at the school that fosters health, wellness, and access to activity during the regular school day.  This is a very comprehensive and sophisticated program.  But, having known Sally for over 20 years, that doesn’t surprise me.  This is how she goes about her work.  Sally is a true professional.  Considered, highly experienced, and has worked at all levels of sport and physical conditioning as a Strength and Conditioning Coach.  In this Podcast, she details just how the Artemis program sets up life long healthy habits for all the students that will stay with them for the rest of their adult lives.  I wish we had a program similar to this for all students in all schools.  I firmly believe that compulsory movement, exercise, and health education is the only way

Matt Wenning is one seriously strong human.  He has held and broken World Powerlifting records over his career as a Strength athlete.  He’s one of a handful of people to have lifted a total of over 2600Ibs (1180kg) at a Powerlifting meet.  This is insanely strong.  Period.  As well as this though, Matt is a student (and one could say Master) of the science of getting strong, very strong.  He holds a Masters in Biomechanics and has learnt from and worked with some of the worlds leading authorities on Strength training and research in Strength.  Names like Bill Kraemer, Charles Poliquin, Professor Rob Newton.  These are people that have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of understanding and adding to the body of knowledge on Strength training and Matt is doing exactly the same thing.  I’ve no doubt in years to come that Matt will be held in similar regard to these people.  So our chat covered many key topics, at times I had to dig deep into my own understanding and learnings just to keep up.  Matt is a walki

Ok, Strength nerds, this one’s for you.  David Watts is a Level 3 ASCA Strength and Conditioning Coach and is recognized as a Master Level Coach with the ASCA.  What that means is that David has spent well over 10 years as a student of perfecting human performance.  He was an accomplished athlete himself (Field Hockey) and quickly figured out that he had a strong interest to learn and become a coach in the field of Strength and Conditioning.  We talk a little about his career pathway and development, and then we get into the detail of his role, his approach to strength development in athletes (specifically AFL), his favorite movements, details around developing speed for team sports and finally his thoughts on where we might be able to find ‘the next edge’.  This guy will be at the pointy end of Strength and Conditioning for many years to come, and I predict, will be in charge of his own elite team in the near future.  If you want to know how shit gets done at the AFL level, or you have aspirations of working

Tommy Simsek is a highly qualified and deeply experienced Sports Physiotherapist.  He also completed a Physical Education degree prior to that, as well as a Masters in Physiotherapy.This guy has dedicated his entire adult working life to the understanding of human performance, injury treatment and injury prevention.  Since 2005 he has been involved with the Sri Lankan National Cricket Team, the Chennai Superkings in the IPL (Indian Premier League) and The New Zealand National Cricket Team.His work has taken him all over the world, and he has worked with some highly talented athletes.  Given all of this though, his philosophy and approach to managing his athletes is refreshingly simple and common sense.  Sure, he relies on the science to guide him, but there is a healthy amount of gut feel and experience that goes into his decision making.Clearly it’s working, you don’t get to survive at this level unless you do a very good job of treating your athletes over an extended period of time.Enjoy the Podcast with To

VICKY KURIEL Dietician and Business Owner was my guest on this Podcast, so naturally our discussion was all around dietetics and nutrition.  Eating well and optimising food intake in general.  We spoke about her early beginnings in South Africa, her confusion and hesitation during her undergraduate degree, with regard dietetics practice, and we spoke in detail about some of the basic principles and practices that she uses and advises people with, in today's world in order to eat well.I'm also going to get VICKY to come back for a second episode, because we had so much left to talk about. But the second episode will involve YOU the podcast listener. So I want you to email me with any questions that you might have around nutrition, dietetics, Optimal eating and food intake, and email it to info@australianfitnesspodcast.com.au.VICKY and I will be catching up again in a few weeks time to answer your questions so please email with your questions and we’ll read them out answer them in Episode two.www.eatplaythrive.

Craig Harper and I have known each other for nearly 30 years.We’ve worked together in elite sport, I worked for him in my first PT role and we’ve been business partners in our own PT centre.We’ve remained good mates all of that time and whenever we sit down to do a Podcast, it’s a bit like to old cowboys sitting around a campfire discussing the good old times and how it used to be done ‘back in the day’.Truth is though, between the two of us we’ve got over 60 years of field experience, training bodies and minds and enhancing physical performance.Tens of thousands of PT sessions between us, tens of thousands of hours spent working with all sorts of teams and individuals, from General Population through to elite athletes and everyone in between.We had so much to discuss, we had to cut our Science of Exercise Episode into two parts.In these Episodes we talk progressive overload, program design, finding the right ‘dose’, how and when adaptation happens, training intensity, recovery, over-training, periodization,

Arj Perera is a coach with over 15 years experience, but has travelled the less worn path to achieve some impressive results over that time.He owns and operates his own private S&C facility in regional Victoria (a city called Bendigo) and has also been a part of the WNBL scene (with the Bendigo Spirit) and the Australian Womens Volleyball team as well.I think it’s partly because he went along a different path, that he in fact developed some sound business and marketing skills that many S&C Coaches don’t possess, or perhaps didn’t think they needed to.And so Arj now finds himself consulting and mentoring with other S&C Coaches to help them forge a career and business in the private sector.This was a discussion that shines a light on how important it is for S&C Coaches to perhaps start seeing themselves as business operators that operate in the space of physical improvement and performance, rather than coaches of physical improvement that want to have a business.FB: Arj Pererahttps://humanmechan

Craig Harper and I have known each other for nearly 30 years.We’ve worked together in elite sport, I worked for him in my first PT role and we’ve been business partners in our own PT centre.We’ve remained good mates all of that time and whenever we sit down to do a Podcast, it’s a bit like to old cowboys sitting around a campfire discussing the good old times and how it used to be done ‘back in the day’.Truth is though, between the two of us we’ve got over 60 years of field experience, training bodies and minds and enhancing physical performance.Tens of thousands of PT sessions between us, tens of thousands of hours spent working with all sorts of teams and individuals, from general population through to elite athletes and everyone in between.We had so much to discuss, we had to cut our Science of Exercise Episode into two parts.In these Episodes we talk progressive overload, program design, finding the right ‘dose’, how and when adaptation happens, training intensity, recovery, over-training, periodization,

Australian Fitness Podcast - Episode #29 Grant Jenkins.I met Grant back in 2008 when we were both part of an ASCA Level 3 course.  What I remember about him then was that he was always up for a debate, keen to challenge mainstream thinking, but not to be argumentative, just to see if there was a better, more efficient, and more effective way of doing things.He’s still challenging the status quo.He’s very knowledgeable, very practical in his thinking, and intensely passionate about his industry, his work, and his business.  When you listen to Grant, you’ll get the distinct impression that he simply wants to do a great job for and with his athletes.He’s had roles in Sport at the elite level, owns and operates his own business and in this chat, we examine the nuances of the modern-day Strength and Conditioning Coach.I liked this Podcast because it’s an open and honest chat about how he sees his role as a coach, what he believes other coaches need to focus on, and where he sees the future of S&C in Australia.