April 1, 2007 - Mike Robertson from Robertson Training Systems Interview

CM: Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer a few questions for our readers. Mike, for those who don’t know you, tell the readers a little about yourself and your background in this field, both professionally and personally.

MR: Professionally, I’m an Indianapolis-based strength coach who works with clients and athletes of all shapes and sizes. I’m also the President of Robertson Training Systems; through my company I produce fitness info products, write articles, lecture at seminars, and work with online coaching clients. So basically, I’m pretty busy!

Personally, I’m a pretty boring married guy who enjoys gangster movies, reading and all types of music. Nothing too exciting on that front, sorry!

CM: How did you get involved in strength and conditioning?

My internship following my senior year of college I interned in the Ball State athletic weight room; I worked with athletes from every imaginable sport, and I was absolutely in love with the idea of helping athletes becoming bigger, faster and stronger. Being an athlete my entire life, and merging that with my love of the iron, made strength and conditioning a perfect fit for me.

CM: As one of the leaders in this industry, you surely have a number of devoted “fans” or, “strength and conditioning groupies” if there were such a thing. Who do you turn to for furthering your training and nutrition knowledge?

MR: The great thing about being where I’m at now is the amazing network of people I can count on to help me solve problems. However, here’s the short list of people I converse with on a pretty frequent basis:

Training for the healthy and/or injured:
Alwyn Cosgrove, Eric Cressey, Bill Hartman, Craig Ballantyne, Dave Tate, Jim Wendler, Mike Boyle, etc.

Diet, nutrition and supplementation:
Yourself, John Berardi, Lonnie Lowery and Dave Barr

I’m also a junkie when it comes to anything remotely related to training or nutrition, so my bookshelf is exploding with stuff I still need to read. Some people like to buy shoes, I like to buy continuing ed stuff – I’m such a dork!

CM: Aside from working with individuals on a personal basis, tell us a little about some of your current projects and where readers can learn more about you and some of those projects.

MR: I really enjoy writing articles and developing fitness info products; it’s something that allows me to get to a large audience rather easily.

Most of my articles have been written for T-Nation, and I’ve also co-authored two DVD’s, Magnificent Mobility and Inside-Out. These DVD’s have currently labeled me the “Mobility Guy,” which is pretty funny considering I’m a competitive powerlifter at heart!

In reality, though, I don’t mind the distinction – most people NEED more mobility in their training and daily life. After all, how often do most of us sit on a daily basis? Probably pretty often.

Now think about this – why do we strength train? To make our bodies adapt to these demands; in essence, to make us bigger or stronger. So how does our body adapt to sitting all day? By becoming less mobile and stiff!

Hopefully via my DVD’s and the work of others, we’ll teach people that getting up and moving around could be the easiest thing they do to keep the healthy for a lifetime. Well, that and eating healthy, anyway!

CM: There is a ton of misinformation out there. How do you suggest folks sort through the hype to get the truth and help them be successful?

MR: This is a huge issue, and sometimes I’m not sure where to start myself! The best thing I think people can do is try to think critically every time they are exposed to new material – does the author have credibility? Does he understand the topic? Does he have something to say, or promote, by writing this?

I think if more people would just stop and think, we’d be a lot better off. But, I digress…

CM: I am a huge fan of your Inside Out DVD you did with Bill Hartman—what other cool projects do you have coming down the pipeline we should keep our eyes out for from the “Mike Roberston Camp”?

MR: I actually have two huge projects on the horizon right now. The first is the “Building the Efficient Athlete” DVD series, which is a product I have co-authored with Eric Cressey. This is the footage from an entire two-day seminar Eric and I put on at Peak Performance in New York, and it covers a ton of material for the developing trainer or strength coaches. The DVD’s cover assessments, how to properly coach and cue exercises, and a bunch of other stuff. It should be out within the month.

As well, I’m currently about ½ to ¾ of the way done with my “Bulletproof Knees” manual; I envision this being a go-to resource for everyone from the end-user to the rehabilitation expert. It’s going to cover all the factors that can affect your knee health, and how to develop a holistic and long-term approach to healthy knees. It should be out in the first quarter of 2007.

CM: Thanks for the interview, Mike. For more information, check out…

MR: www.RobertsonTrainingSystems.com – there’ll you find all my articles, info about my products, and you can sign up for my FREE NEWSLETTER. It does a great job of keeping you up-to-date with everything that’s going on with me.

Thanks for having me Chris!

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