High Intensity Business

AI is inevitable, so how can you make your HIT fitness business attractive to clients who increasingly use artificial intelligence to get what they want? Pixality Design Founder Connie Holen returns to talk about how you can use AI to make sure your strength studio's website attracts more clients instead of sinking out of sight with yesterday's news. We talk about what you need to know and what you can do right now, like understanding how your clients talk and search for things, the best way to write website copy, what content helps get you more clients, and how to think about choosing between using marketing agencies or doing it yourself. If you want to future-proof your HIT studio's website and make sure it's doing its job in attracting clients in 2026 (and beyond), tune in to this conversation with Connie! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get a FREE course to grow your strength training business here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join Even More HIT Experts in the HIB PRO Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

Can you really grow your strength training business into a $1-million studio with little to no advertising? Owen Dockham did just that with Live Oak Strength, and he returns (finally!) to the podcast to talk about how he did it, and how you can do it as well. We go over things like how to make minimal marketing work, how to keep your clients engaged and happy, managing trainers, trimming the fat from your business model (that one's a big one), and how to pick the biggest levers to pull so your business can grow faster than you first thought it could. If you want to know how someone who never started out to be a fitness professional could do so well, go so far, and get to a million in a realistic way that you can absolutely follow, this conversation with Owen is something you shouldn't miss! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIB and get a FREE course to grow your strength training business here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get NEW Precision-Engineered MedX Machines here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join Even More HIT Experts in the HIB PRO Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

Hey everyone, I just wanted to make a public apology to Doug Holland, the owner of Intelligent Exercise and an extraordinary HIT trainer and High-Intensity Training business owner, a man who has contributed so much value to the High-Intensity Training community and certainly to my audience in HIB. We made a mistake, so a few months ago, back in episode 532, which was called "How to Choose the Best HIT Machines for Your New Garage-Based HIT Studio" with Pete Cerqua, Pete made the comment that Doug's clients load the plate-loaded machines themselves, which was incorrect. And I think Doug may have reached out to Pete after the episode went live, and if Pete reached out to me to say, "Hey Lawrence, we must apologise in our next episode". And unfortunately, I completely forgot about that. That's my fault, my responsibility. I didn't prepare the next podcast with Pete to ensure that we mention that and that we apologise on that podcast. And we recorded two or three podcasts after that one, so that's completely my fault. And what we're going to do and what we may have already done by the time this is published is actually remove that excerpt from episode 532, as well as obviously publish this apology, so it's super clear that Doug loads the plate-loaded machines for his clients; he would not ask them to load the machines themselves. So, apologies to you, Doug. I hope this had no negative impact on your business. I understand that your clients listen to the show, and they mention it to you. And so hopefully this will clear up any sort of confusion. Lawrence

Want to equip your strength studio with the best MedX HIT machines that help you attract and keep more clients? Eggert Barwich, the man behind MedX Europe, joins us to talk about his journey from engineering to manufacturing and improving on what Arthur Jones built with the original MedX machines. We go over how it all started, from the deals done between Arthur Jones, Kieser Training, and how Eggert builds everything to a standard that means your studio's kit will last a lifetime, and why these will make you stand out from your competition. Whether you're looking to improve your studio's kit or just starting out, check out why MedX EU's machines can help you get the edge that will last you a lifetime. ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get a FREE course to grow your strength training business here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get NEW Precision-Engineered MedX Machines here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Disclosure: Barwich GmbH (MedX EU) sponsors this podcast.

What if the real reason your strength studio isn't growing — or is even losing clients — has almost nothing to do with marketing, the leads you generate, or how many ads you run? Discover Strength CEO Luke Carlson returns to talk about 21 big things that he's seen in strength studios that kill revenue and what you can do to fix any holes you see in your ship, from "big picture" decisions, "behavioral" decisions, your staff, your workouts, and from a philosophical standpoint. If you're tired of working crazy hours while your studio barely grows — or worse, shrinks! — then this episode will show you the exact leaks to plug first, so tune in now and start fixing the things that are really holding your fitness business back. ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join the FREE HIB community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get NEW Precision-Engineered MedX Machines here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join Even More HIT Experts in the HIB PRO Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

What's it like to go from a personal trainer who got kicked out of a fitness club and then almost instantly go from 20 sessions a week to 60? That's the story of Sandbothe Strong Founder Anthony "Tony" Sandbothe, and buckle up — he's going after Million-Dollar Trainer Pete Cerqua's weekly workout session record! In this episode, we talk about what he did that made him blow up so quickly after struggling, his approach to HIT workouts that make clients keep coming back even after more than a decade, getting high-quality referrals (like, Nike Executive quality!), what he says you should do when coaching clients, and why you probably need less equipment than you think to be super successful. If you want a clear path to success that's very reasonable but also very effective – if you actually walk it – then you'll want to see what Tony's journey was like — check it out now! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join the FREE HIB community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join More HIT Experts in the HIB Pro Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

Who is Mike Mentzer, really, and why is he considered so controversial? Prolific Author and High-Intensity Training Expert John Little returns to talk about the new book on Mike Mentzer: American Odysseus — why is it so important to know the truth about Mike Mentzer and everything that happened to him? John goes into Mike's confrontation with Arnold Schwarzenegger, how his views on high-intensity training changed over the years, what type of HIT workouts he may prescribe if he were training clients today, and more. With the surprising amount of misinformation about and pushback against Mike Mentzer today, you'll want to tune in to this episode to learn why all of this is really going on. ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Want help scaling your strength training business? Book a free strategy call here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join the FREE HIB community here with a weekly Q&A with Lawrence ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

What is it that makes a trainer so magnetic that clients just keep coming back for more, and how can you develop those qualities? In this episode, Bend Strength Lab Founder Sara Rufener shares how she developed her way of training clients that keeps them coming back for more… naturally. We talk about why being a great trainer means more than just giving a great workout, how to mentally prepare for a week of training, the differences between how men and women approach workouts, and how you can create a client experience that feels great for the people you train. If you want to stop struggling to keep your studio busy with happy clients who see real results, then tune in to this one to see how Sara's wins can help you do the same. ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join the FREE HIB community here with a weekly Q&A with Lawrence ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get NEW Precision-Engineered MedX Machines here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

I've helped 41 strength training business owners add between $12,000 and $58,480 per month. If I were to coach you, what would you want me to help you with? You get one wish. I will help you achieve it. What would it be? If I could help you achieve one result, what would you want my help with? Email me to lawrence@highintensitybusiness.com Or direct message me inside my free HIB community - join here Thank you for your time! Lawrence

Can you really turn your passion for strength training and helping people into a $40,000-a-month business? Here's somebody who's already done it: Quinn's Gym Founder Kevin Quinn joins us to talk about how he did that. It wasn't all smooth sailing, though, because he did run through some challenges that almost derailed his fitness journey, but he did some things you might want to know about so you can avoid the same pitfalls and grow your business faster without burning out and losing your passion. How can your style of strength training help different people like athletes, older clients, or even special needs children? How can you approach client instruction in those very specific situations? How would you even get started, and how can you make sure you become successful? Plus, Kevin talks about some important things you should never forget if you're a personal trainer. Kevin's passion just jumps out of this episode, and I really think you'll appreciate the value of what you as a strength trainer can do for your clients — make sure you check this one out. ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join the FREE HIB community here with a weekly Q&A with Lawrence ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

How can you or your clients keep getting stronger over time and still strength train progressively, even as we all inevitably get older? HIT Expert Matt Brzycki is Princeton University's Assistant Director of Campus Recreation and Fitness, and he joins the podcast to talk about high-intensity training for athletes and how you can continue making progress even as you age. We talk about designing workout programs and maximizing recovery for athletes and older trainees, why some people might do higher-volume HIT, why there seems to be a pushback against evidence-based training, and so much more. If you want to know what it's like to be a life-long HIT trainer and be able to keep making strength training progress for the rest of your life, Matt's episode is a great one to tune into! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get a free course to grow your strength training business here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get NEW Precision-Engineered MedX Machines here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

What does it take to build a thriving HIT business that stands the test of time? Exercise Science LLC Founder Ryan Hall is an Award-Winning Strength Trainer, Master SuperSlow Trainer, and Body by Science Contributing writer. Ryan returns to the podcast to talk about the vital lessons he's learned over his amazing career as a HIT trainer and strength studio owner, including how to build a successful fitness business without burning out, how to use social events to attract clients, and what you actually have to do to be treated like a rockstar every time you walk into your studio. Plus, we go into how to design workouts and maximize recovery for your clients, Mike Mentzer's favorite exercise, and how you can build a business with a long wait list without focusing too much on lead generation or spending a lot on advertising. If you want to know what a sustainable HIT business built by a legend looks like, don't miss this episode! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join the FREE HIB community here with a weekly Q&A with Lawrence ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

The Strength Forum is one of the most anticipated events of the year for anyone in high-intensity training — what do you need to know about it, and how can you attend? Discover Strength CEO Luke Carlson returns to talk about the upcoming event this November that gives you incredible opportunities to network with other HIT entrepreneurs, connect with HIT legends and experts, get the latest in exercise science, and find the fuel you need to keep growing your own HIT business! This is an event you shouldn’t miss if you have the opportunity to attend, so tune in to find out how you can get there (as well as get a discount on your accommodation). ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join the FREE HIB community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join More HIT Experts in the HIB PRO Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

Do you dream of scaling your strength studio without burning out or spending big on ads and marketing? In this episode, New Element Training Founder Andrei Yakovenko returns to share his journey into high-intensity training and how it sparked big changes for him, including how he scaled from one to three strength studios (and counting!). He goes into what sets the top personal trainers apart, why he still leads intro workouts himself, how sharing your own story can win over new clients, and why he wrote his latest book. If you’re worried about burning out or becoming overwhelmed in your HIT business, then tune in to this one! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get a free course to start & grow your own personal training business ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get NEW Precision-Engineered MedX Machines here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

What needs to happen and what should you say on the first time a potential client walks through your door? In part 4 of this HIT Garage Gym series, Million-Dollar Trainer Pete Cerqua walks you through how your initial consultation with a prospective client should go — how long should it be? How much should you explain? How many exercises should you do? What do you say to close effectively? And of course, we get into the details so you can design the style of consultation that works for you. If you want to make a great first consultation that will make your HIT business a client magnet, this episode is a must-listen! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join the FREE HIB community here with a weekly Q&A with Lawrence ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get NEW Precision-Engineered MedX Machines here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

What would your strength training journey look like if you were doing all the right things, clients are flocking to you, and you’re on the cusp of launching your own HIT studio? Umangg Sain is an experienced HIT personal trainer in India who has worked with some of the top fitness organizations and is a successful solo strength professional. We talk about the growing strength training culture in India, the fascinating lessons all fitness professionals can learn from serving high-end clients, and what you need to master in order to be successful enough to tap into the high-ticket market. We go into things like your approach to client education when they have the wrong ideas, why personal training shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all, the effect of your session rates on potential clients, unexpectedly landing Ken Hutchins as a mentor, what you need to learn and master to become a great trainer, and more! This interview with Umangg is such a great glimpse into what it takes to be a great trainer doing the work that inevitably leads to success — don’t miss this one! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join My Free Community Here and Get A Business Course on Scaling Without Burnout ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get NEW Precision-Engineered MedX Machines here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

Every HIT studio owner and personal trainer would love to have their phones ringing off the hook with clients asking to train with them, so how can you make this happen? In this episode, Cielo Consulting Founder Nubia Wilson explains how you can put powerful PR to work in driving clients to your fitness business and why this works (just ask Fred Hahn and Melinda Hughes!). We talk about what works the best in getting you more clients in your area, what media outlets to look for and how to pitch them, how you can take advantage of holidays and special events throughout the year to boost your sign-ups and sessions, and more! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join the Free HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join even more HIT Experts in the HIB Pro Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

So you’ve planned and designed your new home-based HIT studio — how much should you charge clients? When should you raise your rates? How should you raise your rates (and should you worry about clients when you do)? In part 3 of this HIT Garage Gym series, Million-Dollar Trainer Pete Cerqua walks you through the most important things you need to know about picking your product (do you know what it is that you’re actually selling?), setting your prices, and what to say and how to raise prices at the right time for your business. If you want to grow and scale your home-based strength training business the right way without crashing and burning, tune in to this one! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join the FREE HIB community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get NEW Precision-Engineered MedX Machines here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join more HIT Experts in the HIB PRO Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Connect directly with Pete here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Resistance Exercise Professionals ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

There is a quiet pandemic that’s going on in the world that not enough people are talking about: chronic disease. More and more people are getting chronically ill, but what if the solution to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic conditions has actually been there all along? In this episode, university lecturer, researcher, and physiotherapist Tim Dettmann joins us to talk about how high-intensity training can literally help save lives and extend both lifespan and healthspan, and why many HIT practitioners don’t realize the power they have to help their clients — and why that needs to change. This is one of those episodes that is genuinely eye-opening, even if you’ve been in the health and fitness sphere for a long time — don’t miss it! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join My Free Community Here and Get A Business Course on Scaling Without Burnout ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Pro Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here

So you’ve designed and built out your new garage-based HIT studio, and you’re ready to get your HIT machines — which machines should you get first? Should you favor certain brands over others? Does the type of equipment matter if you like to train a certain way or if your type of clients have very specific needs? Million-Dollar Trainer Pete Cerqua returns for part 2 of the series on building your own garage-based HIT studio, and we get into the nitty-gritty of choosing the right machines for your specific needs, based on your available studio space, your training style, your target market, and – most importantly – your budget. If you want to get the absolute best machines for your new HIT business and avoid getting equipment that won’t get the job done right, don’t miss this episode! ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join My Free Community Here and Get A Business Course on Scaling Without Burnout ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Get NEW Precision-Engineered MedX Machines here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ Join HIT Experts in the HIB Community here ━━━━━━━━━━━━ For the complete show notes, links, and resources, click here