Today, we explore a radical rethinking of fitness—one that challenges the belief that more time in the gym equals better results.

I sat down with Andrei Yakovenko, founder of New Element Training and co-author of Deep Fitness, to uncover the science, philosophy, and purpose behind his 30-minute-per-week workout method. What started as a personal passion transformed into a thriving movement based on high-effort, low-frequency strength training—designed to build muscle, strengthen bones, and increase longevity, especially for people over 40.

In this conversation, we unpack Andrei’s courageous leap from geophysics to fitness entrepreneurship, the importance of training to muscle failure, and how mindful embodiment creates not just physical change, but a whole new way of living. We talk about aging with strength, trusting your inner calling, and building a lifestyle that supports deep, lasting vitality.

Topics We Explore:

• Breaking free from success to follow purpose and passion
• The science behind Deep Fitness and muscle failure training
• Transforming strength and longevity with 30-minute weekly workouts
• Designing safe, sustainable fitness for every stage of life
• Reframing fitness as a mindful, embodied lifestyle

Connect with Andrei Yakovenko: https://www.newelementtraining.com/ 

Learn More about The Viking Academy: https://www.vikingacademy.com

 Episode Transcript:

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Viking Academy podcast. This week on the podcast I have Andrei Yakovenko. Now Andre and I have never met before. Um but I went out for dinner with a good friend of mine, Gina, in Toronto when I was there last and she was telling me about this workout regime she was doing with this guy Andre. She said it was absolutely insane and the result she was getting was off the hook. Now here's the kicker. She was only doing it for 30 minutes a week as you heard me correctly. You only do this workout 30 minutes a week and you don't do any other workouts. This is called deep fitness. This is like deep heavy training. Um he has a he's got three locations in Toronto. He's got plans of going across the country. It's called New Elelements Training. Uh you can find him underneelement.com.

But the the interesting thing we go into this podcast is we go back into his history on where he came from because he wasn't originally a trainer. He was uh a geotechnical uh and I I hope I got that right. I have to go back through listen to my notes again. But he was doing he was doing the traditional model similar to what I did like the accounting world and the the hard like science technology and he broke free from that because his something inside of him was telling him he needed to do something different. his passion and purpose wasn't there and he's found it here with um this new element training. I was I'm shocked. I think you really got to check this out.

This is where we get to dive in a little more into the body side of the mind, body, and spirit with the Viking Academy, but of course we we dive in a little bit into the mind and to the spirit in this as well. But um I'm telling you, you got to hear about this this new way of working out. Saves you time. it. Uh, you get incredible results and this is the best part. You don't hurt yourself, which I like because I don't like hurting myself at the gym.

Um, I got to go get figure out how I'm going to go see him. He's got plans to move this across North America, which I hope he does. Let's see if we can spread the word around here with the Viking Academy podcast. So, in the uh in the interest of time, let's get going into the podcast. Let's go explore.

Andre, welcome to the podcast. Yeah, thank you, Eric, for having me. I'm so looking forward to talking with you. Yeah. No, this is great. We I just before we got on the here, I was trying to make sure I pronounced your last name right. I'm going to try it again. It's Yakovveno. Perfect. Yeah, I see. It's as good as I Andre Yakovveno. Okay, great.

There we go. Okay, we started this the conversation off with a bang. This is great. Hey, so so you and I uh have never met before and but I'm really excited to hear more about it. Um I went for dinner with uh Gina Malikon Long the other day when I was in Toronto and she was telling me about the work she's doing with you and I was like, "Holy hell, I got to talk to this guy." Like I'm really excited about what you can do for the for the body. you know, on the Viking Academy here, it's all about the mind, the body, and the spirit. I really hop and we can maybe touch on all three, but man, get into the body part. I need to understand what you're doing and because she's just she was just beaming about you. Like, she works out with you like couple times a week or whatever and she's just like off the chart. So, tell give everybody a little background about what's going on here. What are you doing? I don't know how much time go.

Oh, we got lots of time, man. We got as much time as we want. This is my podcast. We [ __ ] can go as long as we want. So, first of all, touching on uh mind, body, and spirit. Actually, uh now three three and a half years ago, I co-authored a book which I I would highly recommend for you to uh look at it called deep fitness and my co-author, he's an expert on embodiment. In fact, she wrote he wrote sorry uh the whole chapter on how you can do this kind of exercise but not from your head but from the body. and it's in you know very detailed uh you know quite unique and uh how say in real in the same time. So the what I do essentially I uh I used to you know a little bit background when I came to Canada when I went through university so all that stuff ended up in uh basically making career in geoh physics uh that where I spent all my most of my 30th and then you know towards the end of my late 30th uh 30s I wanted to do something on my own you know I wanted I needed more challenge at the time you know I was making good money. I was a part in my previous company. So, it wasn't just about the money. I really had a great job, but I want to do something where, you know, I needed I needed more challenge. You know, my dopamine kind of was just like oozing for me. And like, you know, when you do the same thing for thousand times, it's kind of like, oh, it's boring. You get bored. Yeah. Exactly. So, I uh just one day I realized, you know, after a year of sitting on this idea of doing something on my own, trying to push it down, and one day I realized, oh, I just can't do it. It's going to drive me crazy. So I just have colleagues. So I I showed up in the office and I just resigned. No plan B, no plan C. I just knew that you know I was a partner. I going to have some cash. It would give me some capital to start something on my own. So which I did. And then the question was what do you want to do on my own? Do I continue uh my career which I had a good name and reputation or I do something you know original and at that time I was very passionate about this specific style of training uh that you know what we do at Neilman training my business right now and essentially it's a type of workout where you don't have to spend hours in the gym you can get amazing result if you do it right in literally in a one or two 30 minute session a week and I knew it was you you know um wasn't just some theoretical idea um one year before I left we trained this style at my old work and you know uh a body of my one of my colleagues he was around 40 years 40 year old at that time transformed and that only from doing single session a week I knew exactly what he was doing because I was there with him you know we were training each other so I knew this this concept really worked I've seen this is my own eyes so I did my research and uh went to Europe um seen something very similar to what we do here in Toronto and Canada that gave me the inspiration and idea of kind of at least initial like blueprint what to do and so I came here came back and I thought this is what I going to do so I jump into fitness business zero background zero experience but a lot of passion because that's one thing I was passionate about and for me the criteria was in my new endeavor would be something I didn't want to feel like I go to work. I want to do something, you know, I truly care about and this style of training something I was literally spend most of my free time just for fun researching, reading about and try to understand it. And so new element training uh you know could be described. Could you say that again? What kind of training is it called? It's called new like new element training. New element training. Right. Okay. So that's the name of our business. uh we have three locations now but when I opened my first one in 2013 so o over 11 and a half years ago you know nobody was looking for you know strength training for health in particular you know for women most women still didn't understand the importance of you know maintain muscle now it's a different story now everybody wants it right and I remember flying in this gentleman from the states who you know just kind of to teach us how it works how it's done and he told you about 10 years you know before your time and that's actually funny because last two three years I see this search in women people and women in particular wanting us right so now everybody talks about the importance of muscle you know for aging population for women for osteoporosis quality of life everything else so at new element training in my concept we only use machines and there are the the highest quality machines you can find the brand is called medex So basically and medics stands for medical exercise. They are medical grade equipment and the way we perform the exercises we only do in single set but we do it differently from what you normally do. Uh you know let's say we put you on a machine just to explain like a chest press, right? So we make sure you're properly aligned. So the joints, you know, in good position. So form number one, you know, we want to make sure we're using the right muscles. We're not hurting anybody there, right?

So good form number one. Second principle of this training is muscle tension. So we want to keep muscle essentially under continuous tension without any breaks all the way until the end of the set. And the way achieve it is by moving at relatively slow cadence. You know I would say maybe three or so seconds up, three or so seconds down. If you generally go faster than 3 seconds, you start using momentum. So the muscle tension kind of you reduce the muscle tension because momentum takes over. Yeah. That's that's that's the uh the workouts that I I see in the gym in the morning. We get there and I see this guy, he's just like boom boom boom. He's just go flying as fast as he can and I'm like yeah just you know counting reps and do whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So here we don't even count reps. So the idea is you machine maintain good form because if the form is not good kind of was the point, right? So using the correct muscle and then slow and control cadance up, slow and control cadance down. That allows your muscles to remain under continuous tension. And even as you lowering the resistance, we're not letting plates touch, we're allowing a little bit of gap and essenti basically to break any momentum and then doing another slow rep. So keeping that gap allows us to keep muscle under continuous tension because if the moment the blades touch muscles relax, right? So no, no, no relaxing, continuous tension, and you're going to keep going. We're not counting those repetitions. Your last repetition is simply the one that you unable to complete in a good form. So we that's your goal to get to that stage. So we call that end point reaching point of momentary muscle failure. Meaning the muscle is just simply too exhausted to generate any force to continue that exercise in in proper form. In proper form. Exactly.

Proper form, continue muscle tension and muscle failure. If it's done in the right way, you can essentially send all the stimuli you need to send to sort of turn that light switch on for making that muscle or those muscles adapt and become stronger. So you can achieve the effect of that in a single set lasting maybe minute and a half to three minutes you know depending how you know what's your level of you beginner doing three minute to advanced training. So but let's say up to three minutes and that's all you need for that exercise and you basically in a kind of super set fashion move to the next exercise and the next and the next. So we can cover full body training that way in 30 minutes. And in fact if you do it right way you won't have energy to maintain this level of you know in high intensity of effort work more than about 30 minutes. So so in third so let me understand this correctly. So in 30 minutes that you have completely worked out the entire body in perfect form shall we say at taking it to failure every time. That's the thing that's just making my head kind of explode because I mean I I I do work out. I I you know I work out on a regular basis. I'm I'm a fairly fit guy, 55 years old. I'm doing pretty good, right? But but I know what it's like the difference between having just you go to the gym to kind of work out and you're doing that, you know, you're kind of throwing the weights up and around and you're just kind of getting yourself like a little little bit pumped but not much versus pushing it to failure. when you push it to failure and you're having that you're shaking at the end of it and you're it's finding your maximum ability. The beautiful part about this training well there are many yeah but one of them we can literally take a 25 year old elite athlete or we can take 85 year old woman you know socioporosis the principles don't change it's about finding your max that's when you reaching that failure and then challenging it safely and then given time for the body and the muscles rest recover adapt become stronger and rinse and repeat and week by week you grow stronger and stronger and stronger so it's a system. It's not just like a you know another tool in your toolbox. It's actually the whole concept the whole fellow. It's a lifestyle basically. So what we sell at Newman Trading as a lifestyle because the workout is so time efficient and we can make you stronger particularly in those exercises as you know we we do during during the session which we could focus on all the major muscles in your body in as little as 30 minutes once a week. So twice a week when you do full body workout is ideal. It's optimal to get you know results faster and better and I can explain the difference but one still works. So I remember talking to one of my clients you know we we have clients from day one and I opened it you know 11 and a half years ago they steal clients and anybody in between and chatting to one of my you know older gentleman clients and he told me like you know what you don't sell gym you sell a lifestyle because something we just do right and what makes us different while there is you know our kind of concept of training in terms of the benefits you get in a single umbrella minuteby it. Frankly, I can't think of something more efficient than what we do. But, you know, there's other good workouts. What makes us different? We're truly sustainable as a lifestyle. It works. And because it's super time efficient at the 30 minutes either once or twice a week and it's super super safe, particularly when you do it our way, I can go deeper if you want. So, when you're not hurting yourself, it's very time efficient. You don't have to be worried about being in the gym, you know, every day for an hour or so, every other day, only 30 minutes once or twice a week. and it's effective. It's your lifestyle and you just grow stronger and stronger. So, that's kind of you've yet to say anything that makes me not want to do this because, you know, you're talking about reducing the amount of time I spent at the gym. You're talking about increasing my my muscle mass, which is for me one of the hardest things right now at 55 trying to, you know, looking at muscle mass and and and trying to, you know, my understanding is as you get older, that's the biggest risk is that you're starting to lose your muscle. So then you're not able to sustain yourself in terms of falls and all the rest of that stuff. So I want to maintain my muscle, my strength. Um and yeah, so like the time and the and the strength and then and then the safety part that for me is a big one because I know that like hurting myself becomes more of an issue now as I get older. I my daughter I was catching fastball the other day and she threw a pitch at me and hit me in the ankle. Oh my gosh, I'm I'm still hobbling around, right? And I'm sore. I know it from being in the gym. Like if all of a sudden I do an exercise wrong and I hurt myself, it throws me out for a long time. That was the other thing that really struck me when Gina was telling me about this is that it's all done in a way that's super safe. So like you're hitting on all the key points for me, man. Time, results, and safety. Like I mean that's And what happens to the muscle when you stop stimulating them? You don't use it, you lose it. atrophy to find an intervention that it's not enough for it to be the best workout. It has to be effective enough and safe enough but also has to be sustainable enough so you can stick with it essentially for the rest of the life because muscle again is the organ of longevity and I can go give you some arguments for that. uh but it's it's something we all particularly over age of 40 and above we all should be doing and look at it as a lifestyle you know proper form of resistance training rather than just another type of exercise because you can't you can not age optimally unless you maintain muscle strength right now one of the things that Gina told me she said it blew her mind she came in she came into a session with you and she said this little lady with a cane kind hobbling out. She says, "Oh, have a great workout, dear." And she she she passes this woman. She's like, "Holy crap." And she and you walk her over to the same machine that this little lady was working on. And Gina says, "And here he goes." Andre goes and he grabs the pin from the lower weight and he she puts it up higher for me. She was pushing. She was I can't remember what the weight she said. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can tell you she's doing I know she's she's talking about that lady was doing probably about like 370 in that time pounds. Uh yeah, she's she's she's 80 years old. 80 years old. Said this training works for everybody. It's safety is the key and you know you don't want to hurt anybody. Our oldest client is 95 been client for I know four and a half years or so. Way way stronger than when he came like like crazy. How many Nyear-old you know that go stronger with you know with time not weaker right? So this lady I remember that China is um referring to she came back I I had a session with her some time ago and after doing it I know year and a half she said she had her you know u bone mineral density test and she said technician couldn't believe her bone mineral density went up and lin mass went up and she was so excited she said I didn't know it was even possible. So that's why I saying when she shows up that little gray hair lady she's committed right she goes it and because we can do it very safely and you know each time she comes she finds her max and we challenge that max and we you know rinse and repeat recover the beautiful part of this workout yes it's very hard because it's short workout so we can go hard at it but you don't have to do this too often so we give more than enough time for the body to recover and become stronger so what happens in terms of like justifying this you know Let's say time efficiency. Let's say this is somebody energy level now. So you kind of just understand how it works. Let's say you're doing you know normal workout. So energy level is a bit low right? So you're tired you go home you eat something you rest you sleep wake up next day you know same energy level do another workout from our workout because when you train to muscle failure you find that you know maximum mobility of those muscles. Essentially you ended up every set in this sympathetic fight and flight state with bunch of adrenaline and so on. So it's you know tiring for the body metabolically right. So central nervous systems needs time to recover. There will be quite a bit of you know inflammation as a response to the workout which you need all that to stimulate the adaptations but your recovery fall is going to be deeper than normal workout. You're going to be more tired from an average workout. So it it your body needs on average about two days just to feel normal again sort of just to recover and then give another day or two like day three four that's when the overcompensation happens that's when we grow stronger so that's ideal time to do another workout. If you wait for too long, well, the body will decompensate and you're simply going to end up how you were at before. But what we found with our approach, as long as you do it properly and do it every 3 to seven days, that window, so minimally three days, enough time for the body to recover, that becomes stronger up to about seven days before you start losing those adaptations. Come back, you're going to be stronger on those exercises that you did before. So we can build on it where we can see either twice or once a week and you grow stronger and stronger. So that's where the time efficiency comes from because this workouts are more demanding on the body than an average workout. And adaptations only happen after the body recovers. The body has to recover first. It only takes couple days just to recover another day or two. That's when you at your peak of strength and then you do it again and then you build on it. So 30 minutes of this style once or twice a week twice as optimal and yeah.

Wow. So like you had it. So here's a question. When are you going to come out to the west coast man? You said you got I'm working it but I'm kind of like u up until now uh my wife Sophie she's helping with the admin because the business kind of expanded and I'm so messy. For me the first few years was just trying to keep the business alive. So ad mean stuff. Ah, I'll deal with it.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. So it took her like couple years to kind of clean the company up. But essentially up until like recently, you know, I was like one man show, right? But now we expanding. We have relocations. We do virtual training. Um and but I'm still doing, you know, most of the decisions on my own, right? So we we don't advertise. It's all organic growth. Uh you know, people like Gina that all tell each other. And um one one one at some point I know there is need for us. There is definitely market for us. Um but you know I need to be ready to expand. Not there yet. Yeah. Yeah. We got to but next time you're in Toronto you should stop by and we'll give you a workout there. Oh man. I'm I personal experience. Oh I'm I'm I'm looking forward to that. So, you know, um there's a couple areas I want to go down here, and I I I want to touch on the one that means the most to me right now is that you originally went into a uh shall we call it traditional career, right? Traditional model. Um, I'm assuming you were in the office and you're doing your your, you know, your nineto-five and whatever extra hours and then something inside you tweaked or snapped or whatever and it's like I really got to go do something that matters. I got to do something that matter. I needed to have some I need to have passion and purpose. And for me that that's what the Viking Academy is all about is for people to explore their mind, their body, and spirit to figure out who they are, why they're here, and what they're here to do. And once you do, you will have that passion and purpose. And now you're now you will engage life like the Vikings did, right? Like with passion and purpose. And I love hearing your story that you went, you know, I was successful. I had a business partnership and blah blah. But it just wasn't it wasn't that it wasn't feeding my soul. And now all of a sudden, I see the smile on your face, man. And you just you I was dying. And you're just telling me this. I feel the tingling because exactly that's what happened. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's that's that there's that There's something that we're all like we're the only species on the planet that doesn't know why we're here, right? We're the only species that like all the other animals do their thing. Humans, we got to go figure it out. And and and I love that because I I kind of in the same boat like I had I did the accounting, you know, I did my CPA designation, got my accounting, my tax, and then all of a sudden I was like I still wasn't feeling right and I got so got out of that and then I started coaching. It felt better and now the Viking Academy is where I'm really that's where my excitement is, right? That's the passion purpose is like helping other people find that passion and purpose inside them. And I love the fact that you're doing this and also you find the product that really beneficial to people. So like every day I see people, you know, I move between the locations every almost single client tell me how much stronger they feel and how changed their life. I had people using the words save my life, you know, like literally like I have women in the 70s coming back from ski vacations. I haven't ski like this in 10 years. So, you know, we're not selling snake oil. So, there's the passion, but then also the actual the effect it has on people is just so amazing. This is exactly what I was looking for. I remember in my early 20s I lived in Israel for a couple three years and I was working for a time as a scuba diving instructor and remember coming back home and feeling so good like people come you introduce them to scuba diving and they smile I just I know I made that day right and I really enjoyed that part in my job physics business you know you're just sitting there you know making money for all you know for the exploration companies smiling companies for us you know it's great but it's a kind of job of no consequence right you're just moving money You're just making money. Yeah. You're just making money. Like you're not there's no you're just making money. Yeah. There's no purpose. There's no why behind it. Yeah. a job of no consequence because also in exploration which I was parting you know you need like I don't know exact statistics but something like one out of thousand projects actually becomes a mine right so you know like he basically just work for money and uh something was missing like I money for me you know income wise uh for an immigrant particularly I did you know relatively well let's put it this way um but that was not it and I say one day I just showed up and I literally didn't have plan B and that's another thing don't have plan B because I knew I wanted to resign not to find another job I wanted to resign and I wanted to jump off that cliff and see what happens because I need that I was missing that personal challenge I kind of reached the max of that personal growth I could get I think in that company but I knew I had quite a bit more in me so it was like no choice so I just resigned I know what I going to do next, but I knew I going to do something on my own. And then I started to follow, you know, okay, what do I want to do? Like, well, do I want to just buy like a, you know, franchise, a coffee shop? No, I don't believe in it. I don't believe in eating sugars and all that stuff. What do I believe in? Well, I believe in this. Yeah. Okay.

This is my passion. So, let's look at the different business model. Let's do a little bit research and see how I can bring this concept to Canada. That's kind of how I started. That's fantastic. Dude, that's so similar to me, too, because I again, I sold my accounting practice because I just I was done being an accountant. I just couldn't do it anymore. And I remember my wife going I said, "Well, what are we going to do?" She goes, "You'll figure it out." And so then it was like, "Okay, let's go sir. Let's go explore, right? Let's just no plan B, no parachute. Just jump out of the plane to parachute down." Does that's does the secret to success? Because what happens when you have plan B? You know in retrospect yes you would have probably taken it right because it was so hard you know the first couple years I have three kids you know all the income on me to support the family mortgage children cars everything and the business doesn't go right you think you you build it they'll come that's not the case there's much more to build it then so it needs time to figure it out who are your clients you know what works what doesn't work but you have to stick with it because there are so many no sleepless nights let's put this I would wake up in the morning. I have no idea if we can be able to survive until the month because you know I have a retail space in downtown Toronto very expensive you know the expense is just crazy right and like I just don't have money there's not enough income to to stay alive and then you just take it you know that's why actually speaking of embodiment and so I'll give you a little bit story one of my clients his name is Barnett Bane he's Canadian but lives in LA he's a director author and he was here in Toronto shooting a movie finishing a about bullying in children and mindfulness and so he's a big mindfulness guy basically and you know I was training him he wanted to work with me and then he was telling me you know your problem is it's not all the marketing you're going to do it's you I feel lots of fear in you and I had tons of fear right not making it because I literally didn't have plan B so say work on yourself you know like attracts light and then see what happens and he suggested a couple books I went to that journey and I went probably like two three years reading at least couple books a week on this topic meditating doing everything I can do you know going inside and trying to find those demons to work on those fears right yes and you know I think it saved my business at that time I needed it so then I stopped making the decision from the fear I made the decision because you know I would like literally meditate empty my head and like think about the packages the concept and try to make the decision from that place rather than you know jumping and making them from the fear because if I would operate from the fear, I don't think we would still be here. That's awesome, man. That that's Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes, you guys, if you're not watching the the video version of this, you got to see my buddy here. We got a couple Vikings here with big beards and like do I could see us going into battle and just having a blast together. you just you've hit on all the topics that I wanted to talk about because I truly believe that that the answers are inside us, right? We we attract that which we which we want truly deep down inside, but you can't you can't find what's inside you by looking outside, right? You can't find what's out what's inside you by looking outside. So, you got to go inward and and that inward journey for me has been the same thing. I've been constantly going inward and and you know, again, on the meditation side, I probably haven't been doing as as much as I as I would like to. I thank you for bringing that up again because I think that's something I I want to start leaning into a little bit more. Um because that when you have that knowledge and you're not making decisions from fear, whatever happens happens and you're okay with it. Integrity. It's like the key to integrity. Otherwise, you compromise the integrity. And yeah, the minute you make a decision in fear, every my experience has been every decision I've ever made based out of fear has been a mess. It's always shortterm might be okay, but long term it's a probably not a great idea.

Yeah. So you So that that that's really cool. And and um I'm also, you know, I'm technically an immigrant to Canada, too. I was in my mom's belly from Norway. So they came from Norway. I was in my mom's belly. I was like literally they landed and then a couple months later I was born. So, I'm technically I'm Canadian, but I'm Coco first generation, right? You can claim a passport in Norway. I'm I'm doing Yeah. Yeah. I I'll take my Norwegian citizenship there. Um, what I wanted to ask you about was this book. You you mentioned the book at the beginning of the podcast. It's called Deep Fitness. And you said you were you uh wrote it with some you had some co-authors on that book. Yeah. So, my co-author, his name is Philip Shepard, and this is how I was part of my mindfulness exploration. uh this gentleman, my friend Barnett Bane from LA, right? So I was asking a question. He said, you know, you should go take a workshop of my friend who lives in Toronto, his name is Philip Shepard. So I look him up. He published couple books. So you know and he had a book launch. So I went there, introduced myself, invited him for a workout, you know what I just described. It was like love from the first sight. He's like he never and he hates gyms, you know, he's outdoor guy. That guy when he was I don't know, he's in his 70s now. when he was 17 or something, he flew to London, UK, bought a bicycle and took that bicycle to Japan. Literally sleeping outside. Yeah, the guy is a legend. You should you should have in him show. We're talking about embodiment and spirit. Yeah, like you won't find a better expert so I can Okay, connect me up. Yeah, I want to have him on the podcast. This is the guy, right? So, I go to his book launch and then invite him for the workout. He loved it. And you know, now I'm interested in his work. So, I'm taking his workshops. He has this like a weekend version of the workshop and then the longer ones when you go to the retreat and then spend more time go deeper and I you know took bunch of them I became a facilitator of his work you know just for myself like I I took several of those workshops and then he's such a because he doesn't write from deer he writes from different place a place of so much clarity and and I told him Philip you wanted because I wanted for some time to do a book project to write a book about it but I know if I write the book by myself you who's going to read it and you know I'm not going to probably do a good job anyway. So I kind of attempted to write it but anyway so I asked him if he wanted to copyright it this project he said yes. So a couple years later we have a book and it's very all the science of exercise there why you need it particularly for the Asian population in regards to muscle strength. So we talked about the background, the origins of aerobics, the cardio where that came from and so it's a very you know very good book has all the key points and it's very easy to read because he's such a talented talented writer right so I have clients telling me I know I'm reading book on exercise but like I feel like I read the novel yes and the book did fairly well um couple years ago uh we did best seller on Wall Street Journal So you know says something right. Uh so it sells internationally any bookstore any website that sells the book uh people if who you know those who are interested u could find it. So it's deep fitness it's myself Andrei Yakovenko and Philip Shepard were two others. Nice.

Yeah I that's uh that's that's if you're into mindfulness and you want to learn how to do strength training from the mind real mindful way like there's the whole chapter on it. You would love it. Oh, that's No, no, you got me. You got me now. I'm in there. I was just marking down these are my action steps as I'm That's the one thing I love about doing these podcasts, Andre, is that um uh I learn so much from the exploration with the guests and then I get new opportunities to go and explore other things. And your book is one of those things. I always mark these things.

Okay, I want to go I want to go check this out. So, so this this new, shall we call it this new fitness way of coming at the fitness level, it would seem to me to check all the boxes. Like I said earlier, like it would like I think I think the guy obviously before was definitely right. You were 10 years before your time. Um, and now it's it's starting to come to fruition. Now it's starting to bubble up and it's like, okay, here's here's what people really need. It saves you time, you get incredible results, right? And you don't hurt yourself. Yep. Right. If you're women and if you're over 40, 50, increases bone marrow density, maintains muscle mass, build muscle mass, you feel stronger. You know how many client like we literally have countless clients, you know, women or men. Like we like they just awesome. Like I look at them today. Some of them signed up, you know, when they were like 50, 60, 70 year old and I've known them for, you know, four, five, 10 years, anything in between. Every single one of them look younger to me now than when I met them. There's something we know that, you know, muscle and I can go if for me to explain why, but essentially uh resistance training and muscles are the key if you want to age optimally. And so one of the things that you know especially with the aging the danger of not having you know it's it makes it sound like you've got the fountain of youth here man because I'm telling you if one peel if you put all the benefits of what you do in one pill would be by far the most powerful longevity quality of life anything ever invented but there will never be such a pill because the benefits of resisting under a single umbrella there's nothing matches it I tell every minute when you know prospect lines come to me and I have a way to introduce our concept and when I talk about health benefits I saying find me one intervention I don't care what it is another exercise drug or pharmaceutical if under single umbrella will give you as many benefits based on research as resistance training particularly of higher intensity of effort what we do at you know at at our place which gives you even more benefits like we will train you free for a year nobody claimed that ticket because you know like there's so many if you look at the research just a few months ago I saw a paper resistance training rejuvenates aging skin just give your body part I'll show you some science papers somehow this is clinic make it that's crazy so like it would seem to me that this is just like the tipping point this is another reason why I wanted to have you on the podcast is I wanted to um you know I wanted to expose my listeners to this this concept of the of of the deep fitness and the results that you're because it just hits on all hits on all the things. People are super busy. You end up going to the gym and you hurt yourself and you never really get results. Like I mean, and I've been going to the gym for a long time and I'm a fairly fit guy, but I'm frustrated with the results that I'm getting. And you're pretty good, but majority of population probably not even your level.

So for them to get some results by themselves is like hopeless, right? Yeah. So what we need we need a system.

What what we do is a system. It's a concept. There are structure to it. structured, right? So once you understand the structure, the workout itself, not that complicated. Form, muscle tension, range of motion, you know, when it's possible, unless there's an injury, we do something else and then remusle to to fail and then smile, you know, have a good attitude like take it lightly because it's going to suck. So, and but it's it's it's a very like focused you know 30 minute workout and you need ideally you want to do it when somebody like coaches you like I have a training partner or or like friends we train each other because you know watching your form particularly when you approach failure like you need somebody to sort of help you to take you there ideally you can do it on your own but it's not as easy and it's not going to be as deep and that way uh I guess What I'm trying to say like what we offer really a sustainable effective solution the key is sustainable as a lifestyle as I said there's many other ways to exercise if you understand exercise physiology know what you're doing you can get results what makes us special I would say is that it's really sustainable because of the time efficiency and safety and I remember I came to that conclusion I live a little bit you know further away from my gyms my gyms are downtown area kind of I live further north and on the weekend I didn't feel like driving all the way for a workout so I went to normal you know big gym and I'm sitting there like full right and my gym is empty and I have this in my mind the best concept you know this is earlier years so what's different like between us and them and this is what I realized is the time efficiency is safety it's a structure that can give you all the results and give you that and that's what yeah and I can You know, obviously it's a it's a higher higher touch point and higher personal uh you get it more customized to you because you've got someone right there with you working with you, a trainer watching your form, watching making sure that you're not hurting yourself and using this equipment that you brought in. Like that's not it's not your basic gym equipment, you know, because I know that's one of the other things too, Andre. Like I my wife and I complain about this quite often. So my wife's in incredible shape, by the way. That's that's really why I started working out with so I could actually c keep up with her. Okay. So, but but now it's like I love it and and we get to a gym and we'd be doing on a machine and it just it feels awkward like it's not quite fitting you properly and you you know you're going to hurt yourself because you can just feel it, right? So, we just stay away from those machines. It's like I would describe, you know, I don't know, it's hard to describe until unless you actually try medics equipment, but it's more like something along the lines of driving expensive German car and driving like a you know cheap North American car. The both cars both but one would much smoother ride a more pleas more more pleasurable ride, right? Because they good equipment um adjust the resistance profile because muscles not equally strong at every positions along the range of motion. Some positions muscles a little bit weaker, some stronger. A good equipment would would adjust by mechanically the resistance profile to give you matching proper resistance for that muscles at this position in this and so on. So if the muscle is weaker, it will give you less resistance, stronger, stronger resistance, more resistance. So we call it smooth resistance curve. So a good equipment would do that properly. A good equip a good equipment would you know track your joints congruently for its natural function. So you're loading the muscle, not the joints. Plus have different planes of alignments for different body types, padding. Like there's I can literally spend an hour talking the uniqueness of Medics versus the conventional ones, right? So it's really hard to get a good workout like on a typical gym equipment. Like that's why I only use Maddox because in my mind is they're just the best tools. Okay. So, I'm curious on this one and thank you for uh mentioning that again because I remember Gina uh saying this to me at uh when we went for dinner that night when she was talking about you, raving about you, by the way. She's a raving fan. Um and I totally understand why.

She was explaining how you can load the muscle but not overt tax the joint of the muscle like the joints that's the problem. And she's put on the leg press machine. Yeah. won't be able to stand up, but the joints going to be nice and stable. No, no strain, zero strain on the joints. So, we can target just the muscle in the right way through the full range all the like deep deeply deeply without uh you know putting any I would imagine that's a bit of a problem especially say like like they've got arthritis or osteois that people have issues and we have to be gentle. we have some adjustments, you know, like there's always cases, but you know, if you're generally healthy, that's the case. Yeah. But what I'm saying is that if you're not putting the strain on the joints, then then you're able to actually target the muscle without inflaming or causing that more of a Okay. So, in terms to explain so basically what make this workout safe is the slow cadence. Why?

Okay. In physics, force is mass time acceleration. So when you move something fast by definition you generate high force and if force exceeds integrity of the structure that's how we get hurt right when you move slower you control the acceleration you control the force so there's a case where they put this gentleman on a so-called force plate they gave him you know 60 pound barbell ask him to move it fast and you can see how the force jumps up and down two three times body weight so fairly high force same weight same barbell now move it slowly flat line, no force, very little, almost none. Right? So, by moving slower, you control the force. Meaning, this kind of training is actually very gentle on the joints. And this is what you want in exercise, particularly consider considering long-term longevity. You want to find an exercise that is easy on the joints, but hard enough to stimulate the adaptations. So, it's really hard to find that combination, you know, because we can give an older person, you know, five three pound dumbbell. Yeah. safe but really doesn't do anything. We can do you know like let's say crossfit right everybody know it's very intense and the high high you know high force people tend to hurt themselves quite frequently right so also not the best solution very effective but also safety wise not maybe not the best so with our approach we can make it both we can make it easier you know gentle on the joints but also hard enough because when you go to muscle failure I'm telling you this is if it doesn't feel like the hardest physical and mental challenge you had in your week you're not doing it right so it's very hard when it's stimulating but at the same time the joints are just fine. So slow cadence is the key supervision. That's why we only atman training we coaching only clients oneonone. You know it's a brief 30 minute workout. You can literally come even once a week. So most people you know should be able to afford us, right? So we don't we don't make us un unaffordable and accessible. So we make it as accessible as we can. So we had a perfect workout superwise safe. What makes it safer against slow cadence coach watching you and using medics equipment that medical grade equipment one of the safest ways to train? So I'll give you some stats from yellowman training 11 and a half years of business you know people come to us they have issue with rotator cuff lower back knee you name it right once in a while it's possible maybe to push a bit too hard and trigger existing injury doesn't happen very often I know I forgot when last time this happened but you know when you have hundreds of clients in three gyms it's just a matter of statistics right in terms of new injuries in 11 and a half years training clients to failure and you Our clients are typically like 40 plus. That's our demographics. I can't think of even one meaningful client injury. Even one. And imagine how many hundreds of thousands sessions we've done. So I'm telling you this is not just effective also one of the safest you can train if you do it right. Did you say not one single not even one?

Not even one new injury. Yeah. Once in a while we poke existing one but not even one new one. Right. That meaningful that I can remember comes to my mind in 11 and a half years of business. Dude, I can think of just in the last five years how many new injuries I've had in the gym that I never had before, new tweaks that I've done to myself. Yeah, I personally trained super hard. You know, my training partner that we tend to train together, she's super super intense. Like literally, she keeps me honest. 11 and a half years, no problems, no joint pain, nothing. On the other hand, when I did the conventional workout, you know, back in the day before I knew about this style, you know, I wanted to be jacked and big. So, I, you know, always like aches and elbows, aches and knees, but who cares? You just want to, you know, look. Yeah. Yeah. None of it. None of it. No injury and 11 and a half years personally as well. So, it's I'm telling you, if you do it the right way, you can really stick with it for the rest of your life. So, is that the is that why it's so safe is because you do it slow and with supervision. Slow is the key. Slow, good equipment and supervision. But slow cadence is the key because that takes care of the force. And another thing, what happens when you move slower? If you something doesn't feel right, you can stop before it's too late. When you throw something fast, you hurt yourself and then it's too late already, right? But when you move slow, you're mindful. You breathe like you breathe, you pay attention to here, here, you just feel the joints and the muscles and you know if there something doesn't feel right because you can just stop right there. So, you know, another benefits of slow and control movement because you're more present, you're more mindful and you can avoid the injury before it happens. if it if something doesn't feel right. What's your vision for um new elements training? Do you have a vision for Yes, 100%. That's kind of what I wanted to do when I left. You know, I was a partner in my company as I mentioned. So, income was fine. Then when I was exploring the business model, I didn't want to just be a gym owner, right? It's just boring, you know? Yeah. Who cares? Yeah. Like honestly, if not for this concept, I would never be in the fitness or gym model. I would be doing totally something else. The only reason I'm doing it because I'm passionate about my product, right? So then I was introduced to this guy. He was my mentor for a bit and unfortunately he passed away. He was over 80. His name is Wner Kizer from Europe. He's from Zurich and he took this is was my inspiration.

He's the first guy who who's created gym in Zurich. you know how many 60 years ago and they've been using this equipment in this general style of training and selling it to gray hair population for you know when I met him 11 12 years ago 50 years then so now it's over 60 years and I have seen that how you can do this model successfully like I walk into the gym and it's like bright you know and people so trainers so nice to you you know like when you go to Starbucks they greet you so professional have this like client passing by and this one gray-haired lady passing by saying this is the best gym in town and this is Zurich, right? I'm just like man I feel so I want to some some I can I couldn't afford their franchise because that's what I'll do. Maybe I'll just become their franchises but in North America they only in German speak in Europe and a Australia but they don't have presence here and nobody knows about them here anyway and it would be very expensive for me to become a franchisee. So I fle I came back and I knew this is what I want to do. I want to create a version of it and build it in Canada. So that's my inspiration. So Wner Kizer, he was generous enough to kind of be my mentor, you know, to get me going, right? Like give me some, you know, like and he was he's the reason probably why we're still doing it because in my gym, I don't have treadmills. I don't have nothing. We just do one product. We just use medics equipment and we train to muscle failure and we stuck with it. And that's also secret to success because once you start adding other things because somebody wants this, somebody wants that, some then you lose your focus, you lose your specialty. Yeah. Then you just become another place, right? And there's hundreds of gyms, you know, gyms and restaurants, one of the most competitive businesses out there. So that's what kind of keeping that focus. And uh so I want to be Kizer Training of North America. I wanted to take this introduce this to Canadian market and start to grow it. So this is kind of my my vision right now. We have three locations but you know when you're doing everything on your own it's kind of hard to scale right and I'm not sure I'm ready for investors. I know if I want to find money I can probably find if I really want to but I don't know if I'm you know ready to give up my freedom. I like the freedom. I like to make my own plans. I don't like to answer to anybody like just you know I'm happy. I have a good lifestyle. Yeah. So you see I I like the vision idea is to expand one day. I love the idea of being across the country and I love the idea of being part of having it as a as a membership where I can access this anywhere because I'm out because I'm out in Toronto 10 times a year. I'm in Quebec City times a year.

I'm all across the country all the time. Um if I could access this and have this in my regime so I could do it twice.

Definitely when you're in Toronto 10 times, you got to have the workout, dude. But then you have to go home and find way how to do it on your own, which you know we can help you as well. But once you at least try it, you know, with us properly, it will give you a good idea what to aim for when you do it on your own. May we need to find you know what you want to talk about a lot of uh over 40, 50, 60, 70 or whatever year olds. Victoria, British Columbia, man, that's a gold mine. Then we should open one. Yeah, I'm thinking we should open one in Victoria and now you and I gonna have to talk about this a little more. Yeah, I just like right now I'm kind of doing most of the introductory. I I know we don't have the support yet. Kind of all comes through me, but I have to like put everything on paper, you know, it's a process. Yeah. Oh, I can I can we can we Gina can Gina and I can help you with that. We can we can make this happen. Yeah, let's make this happen. That'd be awesome. Dude, that's kind of my my next step is like I need to start working on how do we make it scalable. I like that.

I like that. Now, you know, you got me fired up even more. Um, Andre, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for sharing your uh your story and the this this access to I think I'm going to call it this. It's like the uh you know the fountain of youth. It's like strength training in a way that is done safe with results and uh and time man that time I'm telling you nothing will match those benefits if somebody can show up and show me based on research side by side and even matches the benefits of this you know we'll give them my a year of free training personal training is not cheap so no there you go well I like it man um Andre I think we're going to have another conversation quite soon in the near future. Thank you so much for being on the podcast, my friend. Yeah, thanks so much for uh you know, listening to me talking about something that I literally can talk about, you know, 24/7. So, I appreciate it. That's passion and purpose. All right, okay, Vikings, keep exploring. Thanks for listening to the Viking Academy podcast. Make sure to leave us your honest feedback by leaving a review on Apple or Spotify, and hit subscribe so you never miss an episode.