The ‘Next Level Interviews’ is a series that I’ve created to help give you the more interesting and effective health and fitness information available. I’ve sought out the definitive leaders in their field, to ask them what they are currently working on, and what they find personally interesting regarding health and wellness.
Mike Robertson is the President of Robertson Training Systems and the co-owner of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training (I-FAST) in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mike has made a name for himself as one of the premier performance coaches in the world, helping clients and athletes from all walks of life achieve their physique and sports performance goals.
What is an area that you are focusing on with clients now that you previously did not emphasize?
I think one of the biggest things I’m focused on now is proper energy systems training.
Like many, I fell into the “glycolytics” cure everything camp for a year or two, and looking back I realize how foolish that was.
Now, I do my best to make sure that I give each and every client the appropriate type/style of energy systems development to help them achieve their goals. In fact, I’m not above giving someone that is woefully out of shape, yet wants to lose body fat, a ton of low-intensity exercise up front to develop their aerobic system and get them feeling better first and foremost.
What is the thing you find the most exciting about what you are doing now with clients?
The individualization of training is really fun for me right now.
I know that we’ve always talked about individualization, but now with all the monitoring tools we have out there, we can really dial in what a client needs on each and every training session.
For me, I love using the BioForce HRV with my clients. Once we have a baseline of where they stand, this allows us to make micro-adjustments on any given workout.
If someone is feeling great and well recovered, we’re going to crank it up.
And if they’re run down, sluggish, or recovering poorly? We’re going to dial it back a bit.
At the end of the day, having resources a monitoring tools like HRV allow us to make adjustments on the fly, which ultimately gets our clients better results.
What are your top 3 key daily habits that you find most valuable to your overall health and well-being?
This is a great question, and something I’m always refining. Here are my big 3:
- Have an agenda/schedule for your day. Quite simply if you don’t have an agenda, the world will set one for you. I like to do a quick brain dump every night before bed, as well as write out my schedule/agenda for the next day.
- Train first thing. At 35 years young, I know my body and my energy levels. If I don’t train first thing in the morning, it’s probably not going to happen. This is especially true if I’m coaching a lot that day, as I tend to “give” a lot of my energy away over the course of a day.
- Pack lunches and snacks. This may sound simple, but eating out is incredibly convenient for most of us. I know that when I pack my lunch I’m not only getting higher quality foods from a nutrition perspective, but typically eating fewer calories to boot.
What is one area that you think is important for overall health and wellness that you think most people under appreciate?
I think recovery is grossly neglected and/or under-appreciated. People love to talk about training. Hell, most even like to talk about nutrition!
But when it comes to recovery and regeneration, you hear crickets.
I try and discuss recovery with all of my clients and athletes. Whether it’s sleep hygiene routines, employing active recovery sessions, or getting them in the Recovery Pump boots after a game, match or heavy training session, recovery is a game-changer when properly employed.
Check out more from Mike:
https://twitter.com/RobTrainSystems
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Robertson-Training-Systems/321539468784
