After a high level of interest following his first interview, David Landau joins me on the podcast for a second time.
David Landau has been an exercise practitioner for 37 years. He is a highly respected HIT trainer and rubs shoulders with many of the world’s greatest exercise thinkers, body builders and old-time strong men.
David runs his personal training business, Advanced Exercise in Florida. Contact David on Exarchives [@] aol [dot] com.
In part, this podcast is a response to the large amount of criticism David received for some of his remarks in the first interview. This was also a chance for me to probe his controversial riddles on Bodybyscience.net for further clarity on his approach to exercise.
The most valuable content in this episode includes:
- The difference between stimulating and annihilating the muscles.
- The importance of calories in relation to muscular growth.
- A deep insight into how David motivates his clients and runs his business.
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This episode is sponsored by Hituni.com, the best online courses in high intensity strength training. I recently completed their personal trainer course to increase my knowledge and become certified in HIT. HITuni offer DIY courses to help you get better results from your training and personal training courses to help you start and grow your HIT Business. Visit HITuni.com and use the code “HIB10” to get 10% OFF.
This is one of David Landau’s workout charts (above). Notice the granularity of his records. I didn’t understand what all the numbers and letters meant so David kindly elaborated:
“In the Top Left is the Exercise – Ex P.O. is Pullover, Pd is Pulldown OP is Overhead Press, LP is Leg Press, Etc. Obviously the Number Next to it is the Weight Used. There are small variable Coordinates – Example A 0 B 40 emphasizes the Load in the Top Position, A 0 D 40 would emphasize the Load in the Bottom Position, C 20 would emphasize the Load in the Middle or Flat Means a Mostly Non Variable Resistance or Resistance is Relatively the same throughout. The Lower Right Hand Number indicates Time Under load or Total Time Exposed to the Load or Weight if You Might. Also the Circled Number is a Handle Position like on the Overhead Press as shown in Greg’s Last Workout in which you can rotate the Handle to Various Positions.”
Show Notes
- Why hasn’t David submitted a training manifesto to Bodybyscience.net? [6:05]
- David’s view on the foundations of rational exercise [9:42]
- What does it mean to gauge the muscles? [12:14]
- Exploring “training to failure is like seeing how far you can stick an ice pick into your eye.” [16:30]
- What are the detriments of “carpet time”? [20:00]
- What is the difference between stimulating and annihilating the muscles in practice? [22:10]
- Is there a benefit obtained from moving through a workout as quickly as possible? [25:45]
- How does David measure his trainees progress if each workout is slightly different? [28:20]
- What is the longest recovery window that David has seen with his trainees? [31:55]
- What workout does David start his trainees on? [34:00]
- What techniques does David use to trigger more muscular growth? [40:40]
- David’s view on the importance of calories to support muscular growth [44:00]
- How does David introduce a new trainee to his style of personal training? [59:00]
- What does David specifically say or do to motivate trainees? [1:02:00]
- How many personal training sessions does David do per day/week, how many clients does he have and how many days a week does he work? [1:06:30]
- How has David motivated himself to be a personal trainer for almost 40 years? [1:07:28]
- How has David become well-known in the HIT industry? [1:13:50]
- What does David think about ARXFit and X-Force machines? [1:18:13]
- What has David changed his mind about since we last spoke? [1:20:23]
- What is David’s organic cadence look-like during his workouts? [1:27:50]
- What is David not good at? [1:28:45]
- What would someone who doesn’t like you say about you? [1:33:40]
- What does David consider true that people in the HIT community typically disagree with? [1:35:18]
- What does David believe to be true but can’t prove? [1:38:30]
Selected Links from the Episode
- Bodybyscience.net
- Nautilus Training
- Body by Science: A Research Based Program for Strength Training, Body building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
- Functional Isometric Contraction (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
- Muscle: The Myostatin Connection
- National Strength and Conditioning Association
- IHRSA
- Club Industry Show
- AOBS
- ARXFit
- X-Force
- The Nautilus Book (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
- How to Cure Your Jogger Mania! Enjoy Fitness and Good Health without Running – A Doctor’s Warning on the Running Craze (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
- Fads and quackery in healing: An analysis of the foibles of the healing cults, with essays on various other peculiar notions in the health field (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
- AMA
- National Council Against Health Fraud
People Mentioned
- Dr Doug McGuff
- Bill Pearl
- Lee Haney
- Doug Holland
- Tony Sansone
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Ronnie Coleman
- Jay Cutler
- Anibal Lopez
- Sergio Oliva
- Steve Reeves
- Reg Park
- Dr Ellington Darden
- Arthur Jones
- Jim Flanagan
- Tommy Kono
- Ken Hutchins
- Peter J Steincrohn
- Morris Fishbein
- Alan Calvert
- Gustav Zander
- Adam Zickerman
- Bill DeSimone
429 – A Deep Dive into Joint-Friendly Fitness with Bill DeSimone: A New Paradigm in Exercise Safety
428 – Unlocking Synergy or Sowing Confusion: The Risks and Rewards of Adding HIT to Your Health Business with Luke Carlson
427 – The HIT Protocols Pete Cerqua Used to Grow a 7-Figure Personal Training Business
I just want to Thank Lawrence Neil for allowing me to sound off for the second time. He gives me the Opportunity to tell it like it is and it is a Fun Exchange for me. I have been Interviewed by people that really want to know and learn. Lawrence Neil, Dave Durrell, and Phil Kaplan have had the courtesy of Interviewing me and I have done several presentations which include Bo Railey’s HIT Seminar and the AOBS Dinner. These people have the interest in Entertaining my Historical Aspects and Philosophical Views. I appreciate the time, but that being the case – I have been turned down by a Few “Organizations” and you know who you are – They accept the Status Quo Speakers and have actually not taken me seriously to say the least. That’s why I seriously appreciate and respect Lawrence Neal and the other aforementioned. Lawrence – if you want me to spill those beans – Part 3 would be welcome!
Some of the things that stood out to me:
Gauging the muscles.
Work diligently. Don’t kill yourself doing a workout.
The discussion on nutrition/diet over abundance makes so much sense to me.
David’s way of motivating and finding out what the individual needs, what he learns from them as well.
More or less engage the muscles and throw out the idea of thinking about an “ideal movement speed.” If you look at the attempts to measure such on a computer, it looks like a bunch of squiggly lines. The ideal foundation is to stimulate and again thinking about speed before that thwarts potential benefits.
I was doing this this morning when I worked out. Felt great! Was working hard but not beating the crap out of myself. Feeling the tension, keeping control. Steering the weight as you have also said before. Great stuff David.
When Dave says that the least amount of exercises he prescribes the people he trains is 7 and as many as 15 per session quite frankly seems absurd to me. You couldn’t be training very hard and doing 7 exercises a session yet alone 15. I just don’t see how something like that is possible.
enlite,
Was your comment above about “even 7 exercises being too much for a single high intensity session” for All levels of trainees? or only for Advanced trainees?
Can you elaborate on your current thoughts on routines (how many ways split, rough time between sessions…) for advanced trainees, please?
Thanks.
I also didn’t like the fact that Dave seemed to be very dismissive when you mentioned that you went from performing the big five BBS routine, to a split routine or more abbreviated routine. Dave says the only type of split that he’s familiar with is a banana split !? Yeah i know it was a joke. On a serious note though, on what basis is Dave claiming that abbreviated routines are not effective based on his dismissal of them ? He gave no reasons nor did he offer any explanation as to why he thinks they are ineffective.
I agree with enlite.
I was also surprised and disappointed that he dismissed metabolic conditioning (MC) by saying you cannot treat heart disease, with MC. Improvement of heart disease is (if I understand correctly) a benefit of MC, and Not MC per se*.
*I am not saying you need to rush between exercises in order to attain MC. Only that MC’s main feature is not only (nor mainly) improvement of heart disease.