Alwyn Cosgrove Interviews Dax Moy

I just dug out this interview that I did with Alwyn Cosgrove earlier this year. Thought my readers might like it : )

Dax Moy UK’s Number One Fitness Trainer
By Alwyn Cosgrove

I met Dax about a year ago at a fitness seminar in CT. Since then I think we’ve spoken via email or phone every couple of days. This guy’s the real deal. His real life clients include athletes, military and the winner of the UK version of American Idol (who he helped take off 140lbs of bodyfat in only a few months).

I have to admit to being embarrassed that I hadn’t heard of Dax prior to this event as he really is that good. Even for an Englishman : ) Then I realized that most of you still haven’t heard of him.

I decided to put that straight…


AC: Thank you for the interview. Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about your current coaching commitments?

Dax: It's a pretty mixed bag really.

I spend around 20 hours a week coaching my own clients who are a pretty eclectic mix of Actors and Athletes, Pop stars, Polar explorers and Soldiers to stay at home mums.

At first glance they're your typical trainer-fodder, but with a difference.

They're all VERY serious about getting into great shape, not just aesthetically but in every way that counts and so I have 50 year old mums able to DB bench press 30kg plus (each hand).

The rest of my week is spent between my writing for various publications and running live learning seminars for fitness professionals.

I'd say I have a pretty decent integration of many different areas that makes my week not only great fun but highly productive.

I can't stand being stuck in a rut and variety is really important to me.

AC: Can you tell the reader about any educational or previous career background?

Dax: Well, I left school at 16 to join the Parachute Regiment and went on to serve with several different units over the course of my career so I guess you could say I've always been physically active but my career in coaching began in 1998 with a basic certificate from the YMCA.

Within a year of certifying I was working in the UK's first medical exercise program helping people with chronic disease and disability to incorporate functional movement back into their lives (this was before 'functional training' became a buzzword).

During that time I worked with hundreds of people who'd been written off as being beyond help, (people with MS, Parkinsons, Strokes, Neuropathies etc) and found that not only could they improve when the right stimulus was applied, but that they could improve hugely.

The trick was getting the right stimulus : )

Sometimes it was 'just' good old strength training with simple progressive overload but at other times the overload principle failed to work at all and I would have to look at other systems of neurological 'rewiring' to get them working again. As you can appreciate, the Y didn't really help me that much there...

I studied pretty much everyone from within the fitness and conditioning world along with physical therapists, osteopaths, chiropractors and other therapists to get to grips with not only what worked but more importantly, why things got broken in the first place. In my travels I went through phases of blind guru-worshipping of the popular 'in' guys and boy-scout badge collecting from all of the popular certifying agencies and can say that my certifications are (according to the agencies themselves) among the best in the world.

Yet, despite all the formal education, my best coaches were the patients themselves.

They didn't buy into bullshit theories. They didn't tell me what would or wouldn't work. They simply accepted my eccentric little experiments at face value and then showed me whether or not they worked.

If they didn't, we'd go back to the drawing board. If they did, then we'd try and figure out why so that we could do it some more.

From my perspective, these guys were way better than working with athletes. Rather than improving a 40-yard dash they were going from zero to very low function all the way up to getting out of wheelchairs or off of their crutches after years of being dependent on them.

I went on to become senior consultant of the program.


AC: Amazing stuff – and how long have you been training people? What is your training background?

Dax: Well, it's pretty varied.

I started boxing when I was 12 and did pretty well at that, going on to win several amateur titles over the next few years. I boxed in the Marines and also studied Jiu Justu, Aikido and several other forms of martial arts.

During my time I've played around with bodybuilding style of training as well as powerlifting and weightlifting and found that my ability to get strong quickly outdoes my ability to grow very big. That said, at 6'1" and 220 I'm not exactly a small guy but I'm certainly no Arnold Schwarzenneger.

In truth, I prefer training that allows me to stay strong and (relatively) well muscled without losing my agility and speed (I'm still pretty fast and box more like a middleweight) so I use KB's, O-rings and olympic lifts more than anything else these days.

AC: Can you describe a typical training session consist of for your clients?

Dax: Well, they're pretty varied as you can imagine, but they all start with unloaded mobility exercises to waken up the neurological system and prime the body for the loading it's about to take. This may include certain inhibitory or facilitatory techniques where necessary to allow for the best possible neural drive as well as proprioceptive awareness by the joints and muscles.

I learned the importance of this with my neurological patients and saw marked differences in their performance when I tried to apply load to their muscles without it. Often they simply couldn't move the joint at all yet with just a tiny bit of work on my part they were lifting not only the limb but extra load besides.

I then go on to IMT or Integrated Movement Training which I guess you could say is a second-stage warmup.

This is neurologically based again, having its roots in PNF therapy but with a high performance twist that I've added.

Basically, the IMT takes us through frontal, saggital and transverse planes with progressive movement at every joint in the body. This provides another facilitatory response through the use of the diagonal and spiral patterns that make up functional movement patterns. Basically, it's a wake up to the body saying 'The work's comin'!'

From that point onward, the workout becomes totally individual and based on the needs of the person beside me but it's always based on the one and only system PROVEN to bring about results.

Progressive overload.

I may progress the overload through time under tension, speed or amplitude of motion, load, volume or other means and that may incorporate O-rings, barbells, bands, chains, K-bells or free weights or body weight.

The truth is, I'm not a massive follower of any single training toy and so I'm happy to use everything and anything within my sessions regardless of whether it's 'in' or 'out'.

I just want to know if the client or athlete can first of all, tolerate the overload I'm placing upon them and second of all, increase that overload within the bounds of time I'm measuring their goal by.

Of course, third in that sequence is 'will this overload method get them to their goal?' : )


AC: To summarize some of what you’ve learned - What are your three best general training tips?

Dax:

1. Begin with the end in mind.

People often ask me what' s better, machine weights? free weights? Kettlebells? Sandbags? Bodyweight?

I don't really know what to say to that kind of question because it's so dependent upon what the training goal is. If it's hypertrophy then I think that machines will do a better job because of the reduced input from the stabilisers, if it's raw strength then free weights because you can load more onto the bar and if it's olympic gymnastics then bodyweight because relative strength is the most important.

The fact that these questions are still being asked by qualified coaches tells me that we're still too caught up in the toys of the industry and trying to base our training around THEM rather than thinking about what effect the training is supposed to produce and then selecting the right tools for the job.

Think about it; a great sculptor doesn't spend hours selecting his chisel and THEN start chipping away at the stone, he decides what he wants to come out of the stone and picks the right chisel from his toolbox for the job at hand.

Training isn't any different... or shouldn't be.



2. Keep it simple.

Conditioning is really simple (despite the Guru's claiming it's not) and comes down to progressive overload and little else. So progressively overload! 'Nuff said!

3. Suspend disbelief
People spend too much time bad mouthing everyone else’s theories and instead of finding out what works, they find out 1001 reasons why it won't. More great theories and philosophies are thrown away because of this than any other reason.

Everybody wants to prove everybody else wrong, probably because they're shit-scared that if someone else is right then THEY must be wrong.

Whenever I feel myself falling into that crap I always remember that little ditty (I learned it from you actually)

“Methods there are many, principles but few, methods often change, principles never do”.

Sums it up don't you think?

AC: Whoever thought that up is a genius!

Dax: The principle is progressive overload but the methods are many. Why not try 'em for yourself and if it doesn't work, don't use it.

By the way, suspending disbelief doesn't mean that you have to become gullible and fall for every bit of pseudo-science out there. It just means that you should explore the possibilities...


AC: And the three biggest mistakes?

Dax: The opposite! : )

1. Don't set a clear training goal and spend months on the wrong program with little return on investment.

2. Make it really complex so that you forget how you're controlling your progressions.

3. Disbelieve everybody that's not one of your favorite strength coaches and justify your disbelief by saying that 'they're pussies and never trained anyone special'

AC: Do you train males and females differently?

Dax: Not so's you'd notice.

Actually, that's not true.

I'd say I train females to get hypertrophy gains from their programs sooner than I do with men because, in general, they're lacking in any real muscle mass and simply need more.

Once built though, no, I focus on the individual biomotor abilities of my clients and on helping them achieve the goals they ask for help with. If its strength then they lift heavy same as the guys...



AC: I know you study the field a lot. Who do you go to for training advice?.

Dax: Anybody and everybody.

I like Bruce Lee's approach which is to study it all and discard what doesn't work.

With that in mind, I tend to look for people who're getting results and either ask 'em directly or study their work. You and Mike Boyle have approaches that resonate most with me at the moment though but there are lots.

AC: Who else in the field has influenced or helped you?

Dax: Like I said, I've been guilty of hero-worship of the most obscene kind : ) but I owe a lot to so many people (even those who're responsible for showing me how NOT to do it). I won't say who belongs in which group but the list would include:

You
Gary Gray
Juan Carlos Santana
Paul Chek
Charles Poliquin
Charles Staley
Mark Comerford
Mel Siff
Mike Boyle

AC: What are the best tips you learned OUTSIDE of training that you can pass on to the t-nation readers?

Dax:
1. Strive to UNDERSTAND before you open your mouth and preach - too many people love to hear their own voices
2. Seek for the simplicity on the far side of complexity rather than the complexity on the far side of simplicity - the simple answer is usually the right one.
3. Believe in yourself - You can't get others (including your athletes) to believe in you if YOU don't believe in you.
4. Speak the truth - even when it's hard.

AC: And what Dax Moy tips could you add of your own?.

Dax: Live with passion.

Too many people forget why they got into this profession and end up spending all their time mired in the B.S and arguing with others about the stupidest things.

Skip that!

Develop a “fashion for passion” and spend most of your time talking about the things you love and doing the things you love with the people who love to talk about and do the same things as you.

Hardly rocket science but it works : )


AC: Finally -- In a nutshell - What is the Dax Moy training philosophy?

Dax: My system is called The POWER Principles but it can be summarised like this:

Remove the negatives if you want to increase the positive.

Coaches are hypnotized into thinking that the only way to improve performance is by pushing forward harder but this is wrong.

Think of a car with the park brake on. You push the gas harder you'll only run out of fuel quicker right?

Remove the negative and take off the brake and with no more energy (less even) the car will go further and faster.

Removing the negative psychological factors, the negative biomechanical factors, the negative nutritional factors etc will do more for improving the performance of most athletes than another set of squats, bench presses or sprints ever will.

AC: I think there’s an article there...

Thanks Dax. Where can people read more about your theories and programs?

My websites are at www.fitsystemtraining.com and www.daxmoy-pts.co.uk and www.personaltrainersuccessacademy.com