Andrei Yakovenko
Originally from the Ukraine, Andrei Yakovenko immigrated to Canada 20 years ago with less than $5 in his pocket. Determined to succeed, he built a successful career as a partner in a Geophysics business. Years later, Andrei came across Body By Science. After putting the principles into practice with a group of friends, Andrei saw profound physical changes, and began learning all about high intensity strength training.
Andrei discovered how HIT had the power to transform lives, including his own. Andrei decided to leave his high paid career in Geophysics and setup New Element Training, a high intensity training studio in Toronto, Canada, that specialises in mindful strength training.
Please note: Some episodes that have been recently published were recorded after my podcast with Andrei. If you’re a regular listener you may notice some inconsistency in my thoughts and this is why.
In this episode, we cover:
- How Andrei built his high intensity strength training business
- How to turn strength training into a mindfulness practice
- How to source the best MedX machines on the market
- … and much, much more
Build a profitable MedX business inside HIT Business Membership
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This episode is brought to you by ARXFit.com, ARX are the most innovative, efficient and effective all-in-one exercise machines I have ever seen. I was really impressed with my ARX workout. The intensity and adaptive resistance were unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I love how the machine enables you to increase the negative load to fatigue target muscles more quickly and I love how the workouts are effortlessly quantified. The software tracks maximum force output, rate of work, total amount of work done and more in front of you on-screen, allowing you to compete with your pervious performance, to give you and your clients real-time motivation.
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Selected Links from the Episode
- Geophysics
- Body by Science: A Research Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week by Dr Doug McGuff and John R. Little
- MedX
- High Intensity Training
- The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance by Steven Kotler
- MedX Chest Press
- Nucleus basalis
- High Intensity Strength Training Fundamentals – Drew Baye
- Melinda Hughes on How To Market HIT to People Who Don’t Like Strength Training
- No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness by Michelle Segar
- Resistance Exercise Conference
- Delphex
- Kieser Training
- Hammer Strength
- Pendulum machines
- Being in the FLOW – Philip Shepherd at NET
People Mentioned
- Arthur Jones
- Werner Kieser
- Jay Vincent (Listen to my episodes with Jay here: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3)
- Barnet Bain
- Philip Shepherd
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Steven Kotler
- Drew Baye (Listen to my episodes with Drew here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7)
- Aristotle
- Melinda Hughes (Listen my interview with Melinda here)
- Owen Dockham (Listen to my episode with Owen here)
- Michelle Segar (Listen to my episode with Michelle here)
- Eggert Barwich
- Jason DeBruler
- Luke Carlson (Listen to my episodes with Luke here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5)
406 – Transforming Back Health: Tim Dettmann and Kieser Australia’s Pioneering Approach to High Intensity Training for Lower Back Pain (Live Q&A from REC 2023)
394 – How to Strength Train Athletes, Locking out on the MedX Chest Press, and Using Supports for Nautilus Machines (Q&A with Tim Ryan)
386 – The Life and Success of Werner Kieser with Kieser Training COO, Patrik Meier
Big fan of mindfulness. There’s a great book called the power of now by Eckhart Tolle which I think describes it excellently and definitely helped me to improve my life.
The headspace app is very good and a good introduction into mindfulness.
I would argue that if you aren’t present during training that you aren’t doing it correctly. Certainly training to failure makes you become present!
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your comment!
I was a big fan of Eckhart Tolle as well. He was a big influence on me when I was coming up with a concept of mindful strength training… Must have read New Earth at least 15 times 🙂
Then I came across work of Philip Shepherd (check out his book: Radical Wholeness, and website: https://philipshepherd.com/ ). In contrast to Eckhart and other teachers, Philip actually points to a physical place in your body where we can land on stillness in a very felt/experiential, as opposed to an abstract, way. Changed everything for me!
All the best,
Andrei
Andrei’s responses to comments (thank you JL Marcos):
17 Dec 2018:
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your comment!
I was a big fan of Eckhart Tolle as well. He was a big influence on me when I was coming up with a concept of
mindful strength training… Must have read New Earth at least 15 times
Then I came across work of Philip Shepherd (check out his book: Radical Wholeness, and
website: https://philipshepherd.com/ ). In contrast to Eckhart and other teachers, Philip actually points to a
physical place in your body where we can land on stillness in a very felt/experiential, as opposed to an abstract,
way. Changed everything for me!
All the best,
Andrei
###
3 Feb 2019:
Hi JL,
There are dozens good books. As of now, I am focusing on ‘mastering’ Philip Shepherd’s way, which is very
different from a typical mindfulness approach. Typicality everything we do, including mindfulness practice, is a
top down approach. Head is in control. Philip’s approach is bottom up. You are being guided by the intelligences
of your body and feel the presence that way. The presence is a process that could only be felt, it can’t be
understood by the mind. I would recommend reading his Radical Wholeness book, if you like it try his New Self
New Wo rld book. They are hard reads b/c he writes them from a different perspective. But they are unlike
anything else you have read before.
When we fully prioritize the experience of each inch of the range of motion to the point where we feel a quality
of discovery our mind is empty. HIT makes it fairly easy to achieve b/c the sensations are so acutely felt.
Hope this helps!
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Andrei
###
5 Feb 2019:
Hi JL,
Glad you are giving it a try!
Yes it is not that easy to experience. Mainly due to our self-consciousness. We are constantly supervising
ourselves on a deep neurologically ingrained level. The subtle, but profound, key is allowing the experiences
coming from your working muscle ‘take over’ your awareness. You are not supervising the experience fro m
your head (the top down approach we are so familiar with), but instead we are allowing the ‘messiness’ of the
felt experiences in your body to take over and lead it where it may lead you (the bottom up way). You know you
are getting there when the muscle are burning, but there is a sense of unsupervised freedom behind it. You are
failing, but you are smiling at the same time b/c it is joyful. It certainly requires practice.
Isometrics would work as good.
Cheers,
Andrei