Unity Gym Podcast

Is your squat helping you build what you want to build? In this episode, I explain how body position shifts the demand between your hips and knees. You’ll learn why your squat should match your goal. 👉 Join the Inner Circle email list to get lessons like this in your inbox, complete with illustrations. 👉 Explore UMS Online Coaching to learn how we tailor your training to your body and goals.

When it comes to progressive overload, most people think about adding weight, increasing reps or changing tempo. But there's one critical loading variable that almost everyone overlooks: range of motion. In this episode, I share a real example from inside UMS Online Coaching that shows why manipulating range of motion can be a game-changer for shoulder rehabilitation. I also explain why simply...

You can be strong at your favourite lifts and still have areas you've barely trained. So, when an injury settles down, have you finished the job? Or have you simply returned to the same training that overlooks those areas? Today, we're talking about looking beyond the sore spot and building strength and flexibility throughout your body. I'll also share one of my brother Rad's bigge...

If you’re an adult chasing handstands, muscle-ups or advanced calisthenics skills, there’s something you need to understand before you start throwing yourself at harder and harder progressions. Rad learned this lesson the hard way, and if he had a time machine, it’s the one thing he’d go back and change. In this episode, I explain why building raw strength, structural balance and resilience first...

Most people think the answer to an injured shoulder is another exercise, another program or another mobility drill. But eventually, the exercises aren’t the problem. The challenge is knowing what decision to make next . When should you add load? When should you back off? Is that discomfort acceptable? Should you change the exercise, the range, the volume or your technique? And once the pain settle...

Your injury probably isn't your real goal. Getting out of pain is good. Getting your strength back is good. Being able to train again is good. But why does any of that actually matter to you? This week, I had a conversation with someone working through our shoulder rehabilitation program. He told me he wanted to fix his shoulder. But when we dug deeper, the shoulder had very little to do with...

It can repair tissue. But then what? Most people think a scan tells them how bad their injury is. And if the damage looks serious enough, surgery will fix the problem. But there's an important distinction that often gets missed. Surgery can repair damaged tissue. It can't rebuild your physical capacity. In this episode, I share a conversation with someone working through our free Coaching...

Most people think recovering from an injury is about getting back to where they were. But I think that's aiming too low. Today, I completed my first upper-body workout this year without once thinking about my injured shoulder. No pain. No need to scale anything back. And for the first time in months, I felt like I had much more in the tank. That's when the real challenge started. My ego wa...

Most people believe recovery is something that simply happens with time. They wait. They hope. They tell themselves they'll get back to the gym, back to sport, or back to doing what they love once their body is "ready." But after more than twenty-five years of coaching people through injuries, I've learnt that the body doesn't reward waiting. It rewards building. In this epis...

Most people think rehabilitation means stopping training. They avoid the gym. Rest more. Wait for the pain to disappear. But one conversation I had recently reminded me why that's often the biggest mistake people make. A woman working through our free 16 Part Coaching In Your Inbox series told me she'd cancelled her gym membership because she thought rehabilitation meant taking a break fro...

Most people think waiting is the safe option. They tell themselves they'll start exercising when they feel stronger... join a coaching program when they're more motivated... or take the next step once they're "ready." But after more than twenty-five years of coaching people through injuries and major life changes, Rad and I have learnt something surprising. The biggest regret...

Most people think load management is simply about choosing the right weight in the gym. But after coaching injured lifters for more than twenty years, Rad and I have found that's only part of the picture. Recently, someone working through our free Coaching In Your Inbox series emailed us to say his shoulder was feeling much better. He'd even increased the weights on some of his rehab exerc...

Most people assume that if they're doing the right rehab exercises, progress should look like a straight line. A little better every week. Less pain. More strength. More confidence. But after coaching injured lifters for more than twenty years, Rad and I have learned that recovery rarely works that way. Some weeks you feel unstoppable. Then your shoulder flares up. The clicking returns. Your c...

Most people think the hard part is deciding whether or not to have surgery. But after coaching injured lifters for more than twenty years, Rad and I have found that's often not the hard part at all. The hard part comes afterwards. When you've done the physical therapy. You've had the surgery. You've gone through the recovery. And yet your shoulder, knee, back, or hip still doesn&#3...

*** Get the program card, cheat sheet & coaching support (all) FREE ***👉 https://unitygym.com/slapSLAP tear rehab doesn’t fail because of your shoulder. It fails because of poor structure. Most shoulder rehab programs miss the real problem — weak scapular stabilisers, poor rotator cuff function, and bad exercise sequencing. In this video, I show you how to fix shoulder pain, rebuild strength,...

On March 1st, 2025, one of our online coaching members suffered a SLAP tear in her shoulder. Seven months later, she was standing on the podium at the Central American Championships with three medals around her neck. Most people hear a story like that and assume it's about rehab. But it isn't. It's about something much bigger. In this episode, I break down why Gracie's recovery sto...

Here's what that looks like ...The very first Monday of January, I started the year about as badly as you can. I’d finished the previous year pressing 75kg for 5×5 behind the neck . I’d had a couple of weeks away from heavy training. I came back thinking I’d be sensible and regress to 65kg. But I rushed. I was impatient. Hungover from New Year’s Eve. I ignored how my shoulder was feeling. And...

The Difference Between Damage And DysfunctionA viewer commented on our SLAP tear rehab video asking whether the program would also work for other shoulder injuries besides a SLAP tear. And honestly, that question gets right to the heart of how we approach rehabilitation. Because in many cases… yes. The principles still apply. Most people assume that if a shoulder has structural damage, the only re...

Watch the video everyone's talking about here: ▶️ Fastest Way To Pain Free Lifting After A SLAP Tear Rad and I make a pretty strong distinction between two very different rehabilitation models. The first is general population physiotherapy. The second is sports physiotherapy. That’s a really important distinction. Most lifters don’t realize these are often completely different approaches. Gene...

👉 Watch: Fastest Way To Pain Free Lifting After A SLAP Tear SLAP tear rehab doesn’t fail because of your shoulder. It fails because of poor structure. Most shoulder rehab programs miss the real problem — weak scapular stabilisers, poor rotator cuff function, and bad exercise sequencing. In this video, I show you how to fix shoulder pain, rebuild strength, and return to training without surgery, r...

Although important, mobility isn't always the first priority inside UMS. Stability is often the first step towards a healthy joint, or a successful injury rehab. Especially when rehabbing the shoulder joint after something like a rotator cuff, labrum, or SLAP tear. Here's an example of where this can be a big issue that heavily impacts how Rad and I prescribe exercises for our clients. Las...

Rad and I were looking at a program from one of our Inner Circle subscribers — Dan, 36, from South Wales, UK. To be honest, this was one of the best programs we’ve reviewed in a long time. For the first time, we saw a clear focus on structural balance. That’s extremely rare at this stage. But there was one problem. He was trying to fit too much into a 60–70-minute session. And the biggest ineffici...

In my last episode, I shared why I felt let down by the new ACSM Position Stand on Resistance Training (2026). Not because it was wrong. But because it didn’t really help people like you (and me). Today, I want to show you what it completely missed. And why this matters far more than the program you follow.

I was excited about this research… until I read it A new position stand. Over 30,000 participants. Something that promised to update everything we thought we knew about strength training. I even planned to make a YouTube video breaking it down. But after a long chat with Rad, we scrapped the idea. These types of videos just don’t perform well on our channel. They’re too deep. Too nuanced. Too “ins...

Something interesting came up in a coaching conversation this week. One of our online coaching members messaged Rad about shoulder pain during dumbbell floor press. He’d previously been told to always depress and retract his scapula when pressing — a cue most lifters are very familiar with. But the strange thing was this: The pain was still there… even with almost no weight. He dropped the dumbbel...