Unity Gym Podcast

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...

Join our email list for a chance to have your program reviewed: https://unitygym.com/email-listThis video is for one of our subscribers who submitted their program for review. If you want to lose weigth and build muscle, this is for you. After more than 25 years of coaching, this is one of the most common mistakes I see in training programs. In this video, we’re going to break down this subscriber...

By now, you should know your stage. Flexibility bottleneck. Balanced. Or strength priority. Most people stop there. They understand the theory. But they still guess the application. That’s where progress stalls. Because regardless of phase, one thing never changes. Structural balance. This week, I want you to watch the full 4-part playlist. Because it shows the exact rule we use in UMS to fix this...

Eventually, something changes. You can sit comfortably in a deep squat. You can press a barbell behind your head at the bottom without strain. Your hips and shoulders move freely. At that point, flexibility is no longer the limiter. Strength is. This is where a lot of people make a costly mistake. They keep chasing more range. Deeper pancakes. Flatter splits. More impressive shapes. But high-level...

If flexibility is your bottleneck, there is a faster way. But it isn’t passive. And it isn’t comfortable. The fastest method follows a simple sequence: Contract. Stretch. Convert. First, you contract the muscle at end range. Hard. For middle splits, that means driving the legs apart using your glutes. For hamstrings, it might mean lifting the leg against resistance before lowering into the stretch...

Most people think tight muscles are the problem. They’re not. Your nervous system is. When you move into a deep stretch, your body doesn’t ask, “Do you want more range?” It asks, “Is this safe?” If the answer is uncertain, it contracts. That protective response is automatic. It’s called the stretch reflex. And it acts like a brake. This is why you can stretch for months and still feel blocked. Thi...

When strong people realise they’re stiff, they usually do one thing. They add more stretching. Another session. Another class. Another 20 minutes at the end of a workout. It feels productive. It’s usually a mistake. Real flexibility training isn’t gentle. It applies load. It demands muscular effort. It creates fatigue. If you add that fatigue without adjusting recovery, something gives. Strength s...

I believe that before you chase advanced flexibility… you need to clear two key benchmarks. Not Instagram range. Not circus tricks. Foundational positions. First: ✓ A comfortable, relaxed arse-to-grass squat. Not falling over. Not heels lifting. Not shaking. You should be able to sit there and breathe for two or three minutes. That position tells us your ankles, hips, and spine can access deep ran...

Most people think they need 100%. 100% strength focus. Or 100% flexibility focus. That mindset is what keeps them stuck. If you trained pure maximal strength, you would bench, then sit for 3–7 minutes doing nothing. That gives you the highest possible force output. But it gives you zero flexibility progress. On the other side, if you trained pure flexibility with maximal intensity, you’d fatigue t...

Once you understand that flexibility is stress, the next question is obvious. How hard should you push it? The answer is not “as hard as possible.” The answer is: it depends on your goal. After years of trial, injury, ego, and experimentation, we realised there are only three ways to combine strength and flexibility that actually work. 1 — Strength Priority You already have solid range. Now you wa...

Here’s something most strong people don’t expect. You don’t get injured on your max lift. You get injured on the rep you thought was easy. Back in 2012, I was training hard. High volume. High intensity. Proper bodybuilding split. I was big. Strong. Confident. At a hypertrophy workshop, the first exercise was 20 reps on a 70kg squat. A warm-up. Not a max attempt. Not a grind. I completely blew my l...