This afternoon I went off to visit my buddy Zack Cahill at Aegis Training.
I make no secret that I enjoy reading and studying all aspect of fitness and nutrition. I enjoy studying physiology, biomechanics and psychology, BUT I’m not gonna lie, I enjoy reading programs and training too.
I like to watch other trainers, I like to understand the coaching process and I like to know the underlying mechanisms that support there business.
I’ve followed Zack’s work for while reading his blog and value his opinion and insight.
After looking at Zack’s training programs - all of which are affectionately named after 1980’s Arnie films - I thought it was time to pay my dues and go and visit him in person.
I really rate personal training as a method of getting fit and genuinely think there is no better way for a person to get in shape. Being coached in anything lends itself to achieving success and despite my many years of training I am no exception.
I turned up at Zack’s gym 15-minutes late having confused the time of our appointment and somewhat unfortunately interrupted his lunch. Not a good start.
After a brief warm up we soon hit the squat rack. We started with something Zack called the ‘Man Circuit.’ A combination of heavy squats, weighted jump squats, standing jumps and sled pushes. I knew I wasn’t in for a good time.
We then hit a couple of back circuits super setting different exercises with a variety of interesting and exciting rep systems. And finally finishing with something interestingly named ‘The Cunt.’
I’ll be honest it was more like ‘The Can’t.’ I was fried. Skillfully and intelligently Zack had destroyed me. I’m rather ashamed to say I failed to finish my final set instead choosing to hover over a bin in case my prawn sandwich and coffee which I joyfully scoffed at lunch decided to make a reappearance.
Please don’t feel this is in any way, shape or form irresponsible of Zack - it was exactly what I wanted. I wanted to see some of the methods he uses to get his clients (mainly female lawyers) in such good shape. In just one hour I had be given a brilliant insight into why Zack and his company Aegis Training was voted one of London’s top gyms.
From reading Zack’s programs and spending time talking to him after I have feel I have benefited as a coach. Spending just a short amount of time in his gym I got an idea of how I can develop my business. He used a couple of very skillful ways to keep me moving between sets and the variation of exercises was brilliant.
Another takeaway for me is variation of tempo. The combination of fast and slow movements created an obscure metabolic demands. This is something I will play with. The way and speed in which he regulated the sets was interesting. He set a target of between three or four sets per circuit but limited it by time. This meant that when the clock hit 10 or 15 minutes we changed onto a new set of exercises. And again the old school rep systems he used with different exercises is not something I had ever thought of.
Zack’s business seems to be incredibly popular and for good reason. He forgo’s the gimmicky nonsense that are common place in many gyms and prefers to develop and cultivate good relationships and evidence based training protocals.
I can’t wait to re-visit Zack in the new year when I'm fitter and stronger - hopefully next time I won’t puke my ring up!
If you are up in the city and looking for a PT I can’t recommend Zack highly enough. Check out his website www.aegistraining.co.uk
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