Posted December 13, 2011

Interview With Rob King

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A few days ago I had a great opportunity to chat with Rob King, a trainer and gym owner in Newfoundland who runs Heavyweights Training Centre. He’s a pretty big deal, and he’s been around the fitness industry for a long time. He’s met with and learned from some of the best in the business, and has a travel account that’s bigger than the average trainers annual salary in order to make himself better and deliver more quality training to his clients.
In short, I got a serious man-crush on this guy. I envision a world where the two of us could be like Cal Naughton and Ricky Bobby, running first and second in the NASCAR circuit of life. It would be Shake and Bake and Magic Man & El Diablo all over this bitch!! We all know who would be Ricky Bobby, though. We can’t both be first!!! Let’s find out what makes him so routinely cool.
Who are you and what makes you such a big deal?

My name is Bruce Wayne, I am also sometimes known as “Batman” and I am the protector of Gotham City.

Wait….Nevermind

My name is Rob King, I am a big deal because I have done a lot of cool stuff in my short 38 years involving Fitness, Business & life in general.

I am one of the hardest working and most passionate people you will ever meet when it comes to Fitness and training.

Oh & I can drink & party like a Rockstar (It’s the Newfoundlander in me).

What can someone looking to join your Heavyweights Ripped in 42 program expect from the workouts?

Two Words:

THE BEST.

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I pride myself on brining my best to my members. However Rippedin42 isn’t just about me, it’s about our TEAM.

I don’t believe my success or my members success can be attributed to just me, I build a Team and a Family with Rippedin42, and we have done just that with this program, which is why the results are literally like nothing else being done at the moment.

Aside from teamwork & creating a sense of family with our members I believe in the theory that “Iron Sharpens Iron”. I want my members getting THE BEST so I train and learn from THE BEST.

Our workouts are like nothing else, they are a mix of training styles and elements that I like and use and somewhat branded into my own style of training.

The main goal is fat loss, but along the way I also get people healthier, stronger, more agile, improve injuries and more.

Sounds too good to be true but it isn’t. Heck reading that I wouldn’t believe it, but our clients results speak for themselves.

 You just started offering business coaching for fitness professionals and gym owners. What kinds of things do you feel you can provide to someone looking to take their business to the next level?

I have been self-employed now since 1999. I started my Fitness Business with 250$ cash and a desktop and NO skills. I mean NONE.

I was so bad with computers when I started Heavyweights that my hard drive was so small I deleted ALL the files on my Windows 95 machine thinking I could get more space. When I went to reboot was when the problems started.

The big thing I can help people with is preventing making COSTLY mistakes. I have made a TON of Mistakes business wise, a TON. I believe that you learn from your mistakes, but I also believe that having a mentor can save you Time, Money & STRESS. The Stress being the biggest factor.

You can love what you do, you can sell supplements or train clients all day long, but once money gets involved, and once you add STRESS on to that, it’s a game changer and not in a good way.

Along with mistakes I have met and learned from some of the best Fitness Business people in the world. Being in 3 Fitness MasterMinds over the last two years I have triples my business while improving my life quality BIG TIME.

It’s not all about money, yes it matters, but it’s also about QUALITY. It’s the lifestyle I am after, and trying to fit all the pieces of the puzzle to do what I love, make a lot of money, change lives, and be happy. Pretty deep stuff I know.

What are you reading or watching right now to make you a better trainer or business owner?

I am a collector of information. I buy everything. Every Fitness DVD, Book, Seminar, I Buy it. My library is mental.

Will I read it all right away? No. But to me my EDUCATION is the best money I can invest along with food and travel. I will never ever consider resources as an “expense”

At the moment I just got back from New Jersey for a 1 day Perform Better Seminar (Amazing). Aside from that I am reading

Everyone has their go-to exercises. For me it’s a toss-up between heavy deadlifts and concentration curls with my legs waaay too open. What do you like to go towards?

I used to love to bench, squat, front squat dead, standing press, chin. Then I got injured, so I had to modify sadly.

So now my go to exercises are Pull Up Variations, Standing Presses, Prowler Sled (Love it), Box Front Squats, Heavy Lunges, and lot’s of bodyweight exercises.

I train as best as my body allows me to train, but I always find ways to make it fun & challenging.

As a member of the “Bad Back Club” with myself, when did you start having problems? What do you do that makes life suck extra hard, and what do you do to make your back feel better and stronger?

Man…. Ya know what this still kills me.

It’s amazing how ONE STUPID THING in the gym can set you through a lifetime of PAIN.

It’s a big reason why I upped my level or learning & knowledge because i had to work around it.

I hurt my back originally when I was powerlifting. Doing a single of 585 in a sumo dead, trying to lock it out, at the top, pushing the hips but not high enough….I kept fighthing when I shoulda dropped it, but I was STUPID.

Next thing I know I felt like I was shot.

I dropped the weight, and dropped to the ground.

That was that.

Young and dumb I had to squat 3 days later

135 lb hurt

225l lb really hurt

315 lb crippled me

I used to squat 405 lb for 15 reps to the floor raw. So 315 crushing me I knew something was wrong, very wrong.

That was the end of my power-lifting & heavy training.

It’s why i am so adamant about Technique and with some exercises, like Deadlifts “Leaving a little in the tank”

To get stronger & better and improve I had to re-think everything.

Squats & Leg Presses & more Pain meds weren’t the answer.

I started to read about injuries, back issues, and my eyes started to open that there is more to lifting than what Flex Magazine and Pro Bodybuilders tell you.

I started to read the right info, I started to add in improved warm ups, mobility exercises, corrective exercises, soft tissue work (my favorite).

Now I try to approach things with balance. But at the end of the day I still like lifting heavy sh*t when my body allows it.

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 As someone who has been in the fitness industry for a long time, including traveling copious miles to see and learn from some of the best in the industry on their home turf, you’ve probably seen a lot of really cool things as well as things that make your eyes want to bleed. What are some of the things fitness professionals are doing better now compared to even 10 years ago?

First off I travel a LOT. As well traveling out of St. John’s Newfoundland sucks (google it). But I love what I do and I am lucky to be able to do it.

The game has changed a LOT. The days of everyone doing workouts from BodyBuilders and books like “The Arnold Encyclopedia” has changed. Right now gyms are confusing to people.

You have modern gyms with 800 machines for isolating every exercise and you have 200 “Cardio” machines making exercise easy as you watch TV.

On the other hand you have Cross Fit who are just killing people, they are passionate and most people can benefit from LESS Machines, but crossfit is just injuries waiting to happen.

Sooner or later someone will do it right and package it.

The right training equipment.

The right coaching.

The FULL Approach (Training, Nutrition, Supplements & Mindset)

It’s what we practice at Heavyweights Training Center, time for me to franchise :).

I think with the Internet the SMART guys are able to get themselves out there and educate people. Before if you went to a gym all you had was the information the gym gave you, OR what you saw people doing in the gym.

I saw people doing some crazy sh*t when I started training, crazy stuff, but I did it because I didn’t know any better and thought it must be working.
Then along comes the interwebs and changes everything.

It’s crazy.

I mean you can go to T-Nation and have enough QUALITY information to last a lifetime. Literally. 10 years researching fitness on my own via magazines, books, and trial and error, and you type in that website and you have more info that you can ever ask for.

However we don’t lack information anymore, we lack focus. But that’s another blog post in itself.

Thanks for providing some great info for the day, Rob. I’m sure there’s a lot of people who will anxiously be awaiting your debut on T-Nation, as well as every other form of media you can conquer!!

Thanks Dean! Hope that doesn’t take too long!

 

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