Author: Turk Fickling

People ask me all the time what is intensity? How do you apply it to your training? Do I really need to train with high intensity to grow? Let me take a few moments to share with you my perspective on this topic. You can define intensity in 3 ways, well actually 4 ways. You can increase reps, increase weight, decrease the time in between sets, or a combination of all 3 which would give you the 4th element. It is difficult to have high levels of intensity, if your training model is centered on volume training. I say that…

My name is Turk Fickling and I’m a personal trainer at the Xtreme Edge Gym in Beaverton, Oregon. I’m going to take you through a high intensity back workout today and the training style that I will be showing you is one that I developed. I call it “Turk’s Training Principles” which includes a combination of many different programs such as Mike Mentzer’s HIT (high intensity training), Joe Weider’s principles, and a lot of my own training beliefs and viewpoints. This workout routine is high intensity which means we will be going to failure for every set. We will be…

This is Turk Fickling with ShapeFit.com and today I think we have a winner for you. This is a super high intensity back workout to add serious size to your lats. This is part 2 which covers the second set of our back workout series and it’s a great one! In this workout, we are going to start out with barbell shrugs which are basically going to hit the upper part of your traps. Then, we are going to go into seated bottom trap shrugs which is kind of similar to seated rows but I’m just targeting the lower part…

This is Turk again and we are training at the Xtreme Edge Gym here in Beaverton, Oregon. Josh is going to be working with us today and I will be putting him through the second set of our high intensity chest workout. This workout is going to consist of a 3 movement set. The first exercise is the incline barbell bench press and he will be doing slow reps along with rest pause. So, that is 2 training principles on the first exercise. Then Josh will go over and do flat bench dumbbell presses for his second exercise. He will…

This is Turk again on behalf of ShapeFit.com and we are here at the Xtreme Edge Gym in Beaverton, Oregon. I’m going to introduce to you a couple of friends of mine who will be helping us out with today’s high intensity chest workout. The first person who is helping us out is Josh Coleson who is a personal trainer at the Xtreme Edge gym and he is also a men’s physique competitor. Along with Josh, we also have Shawna Coleson who is a personal trainer at the Xtreme Edge gym and she is a women’s figure competitor. Eric Emms…

This is Turk and we are back here at the Xtreme Edge Gym. Shawna is going to perform this high intensity chest workout with a total of 3 exercises. This will be a giant set, so each exercise will be performed back to back with very little rest in between. Her first set will consist of incline barbell bench press then she will move right into flat bench dumbbell press and finish up with cable crossovers. On the first exercise, which is the incline barbell bench press, we will be doing a 4 count negative with a 2 count positive…

This is Turk and we are at the Xtreme Edge Gym in Beaverton, Oregon for the first set in today’s high intensity leg workout. We have a new guy who is going to be working out with us today. His name is Chris Finch and he is a bodybuilder that is training for an upcoming show. The first exercise in today’s leg workout is going to consist of leg extensions and then we are going to roll right into partial hack squats with slow reps and then we will finish up the workout with regular squats on the smith machine.…

This is Turk again and we are at the Xtreme Edge Gym in Beaverton, Oregon for the second set in today’s high intensity leg workout. If you watched our first video which covered the first set in our leg workout, you will remember we did 3 different exercises which focused on the quadriceps muscles. Because we are doing each exercise in the set back to back with minimal rest in between, this is considered a giant set. We are trying to get a super high intensity workout so we are adding another set to this leg routine. If this workout is…

I have been a certified personal trainer for over 20 years. During that time, I have attained several certifications including the A.C.S.M. in personal training, nutrition, and C.S.C.S. (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists). I have also competed in bodybuilding, winning the: North Carolina State Emerald Cup Oregon State Jr Nationals Placing top 6 in the Nationals and USA’s. During the past 20 years, I have trained several hundred people including professional athletes, competitive bodybuilders and anyone who is interested in getting in shape which includes gaining lean muscle mass, losing body fat or both! Services I Provide: My services include…