A couple weeks ago, my good friend Joe Dowdell sent me an advanced copy of his new product Peak Diet & Training Summit video course that was filmed from their workshop in NY at Joe’s gym last summer. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it out to the workshop back when it happened, so I was looking forward to digging into the workbook, DVDs and everything that was included in the new product.
Who Is It For?
This is a product recommended and targeted towards personal trainers and strength coaches. Overall, I’d say it’s most well suited towards the personal training side of things, but with so much information in it, strength and conditioning coaches will likely benefit from working through it as well.
Joe Dowdell has been considered one of the top personal trainers the country for many years for good reason. He gets great results with the clients he works with and I think he’s one of the few personal trainers out there that combines a broad knowledge base with a huge amount of real world experience. He’s definitely not another “internet guru” that’s never really trained anyone. He’s a full-time trainer and successful gym owner that’s finally starting to get his training methods and information out there.
What Do You Get?
My first thought when I got the package was, “Holy sh*t, this is TON of material!” Between the training and diet workbooks, there was close to 600 pages of information. It wasn’t just full of pictures or wasted space either, it was solid text and supporting graphics. All in all, I was very impressed with the sheer volume of training and diet information that Joe and Dr. Mike Rousell had put into the package.
As someone who has obviously put together these types of products before myself, I know how much time it takes to create material like this and I can only imagine how many hours of work went into creating the entire package that’s included in the course.
Aside from the two giant workbooks, there’s also 15 complete DVDs included as well. In other words, there’s more than enough content to go through. Here’s what I liked and you can expect to find each of the two different modules:
Module One: Program Design
Considering how much time Joe has spent learning from just about all of the popular strength and conditioning coaches out there, I was very curious to see what he’d put in the program design module and what his programming would look like.
What I found was a very comprehensive overview of a ton of the major programming principles and topics that trainers and coaches should all understand.
Joe covered a ton of great stuff including:
- Goals & Assessments
- Basic Training Principles
- Periodization
- GPP vs. SPP
- Sequential Method
- Conjugate Method
- Undulation Method
- Concurrent Method
- Block Periodization
- Training Session Structure
- Energy Systems Training
- Recovery & Regeneration
- Types of Strength Qualities
- Programming Volume & Intensity
- Exercise Selection
- Case Studies
- Program Design & Assessment Sheets
- 650 Exercise Database
Overall, I was extremely impressed with the amount of information on program design that was included in this component of the course. Joe did a fantastic job covering all the most important topics on program design and he included some great worksheets for assessments, planning and tracking the entire training process.
I think any trainer out there would benefit from working his or her way through the training design section of the course, there’s so much material it would be next to impossible for someone not to pick up something valuable from it. If you want to see all the details of exactly what’s covered in this portion of the course, CLICK HERE
Module II: Diet Design
The fact that the course covers not just training program design but also diet is part of what I liked most about it. There’s very few products out there that do a good job of covering either subject, let alone ones that do a great job at covering both. Training and nutrition should always go hand in hand for the best results and Dr. Mike Rousell knows his stuff.
He’s contributed to this site before and he’ll be putting together more articles soon as well. I really like his straightforward and practical approach. He keeps things simple and easy to apply, which is important in the real world of nutrition because so many people and even athletes just need the basics that work. I’ve seen too many diet plans that look great on paper, but there’s just no way they’ll fly in the real world because almost nobody will ever follow them.
- 6 Pillars of Nutrition
- Stages of Nutrition
- Supplement Pyramid
- Nutrition for Fat Loss
- Eating for Size & Strength
- Workout Nutrition
- Nutrient Timing
- Modular Meal Plan System
- 37 Recipes
- And more
Summing It Up: Is It Worth It?
The Peak Diet & Training Summit is not an inexpensive course, but overall I’d say it’s a great value for any personal trainer that takes his or her job seriously. When I first met Joe back around 2001 or so at Mel Siff’s house, he had already been through just about every certification course, workshop and internship imaginable. Since then, somehow he’s found the time to go to even more and I truly don’t think there is a trainer out there anywhere else that invests more time, effort and money into his education.
Dr. Mike Rousell is also a PhD so the amount of time he’s put into his education is obvious as well. When you consider how many hundreds and hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars have gone into the education of both these guys or how much money and time you’d have to spend to get the same education yourself, you can’t help but realize that having access to nearly 600 pages and 15 DVDs full of training info from the two of them is a tremendous value at almost any price.
I get emails and questions all the time about what reading material I recommend and what I spent my time studying. To be honest, there’s just not that much out there aside from research and few obscure books that I spend my time on or recommend, but this new course is definitely one I’m adding to my list of recommendations of must read material for any personal trainer.
I’d say it’s the most comprehensive course out there for program and diet design for personal trainers and the cost is less than attending just about any major workshop or seminar and certainly less than it would have cost to fly to NY and attend the live event. There’s not a ton of material I recommend and feel confident putting my name behind, but the Peak Diet & Training Summer is one such product and I think every trainer would benefit from investing in it. Joe just put up an option to break the cost into two payments, which makes it even for most people to pick up the course without breaking the bank.
To me, an eagerness to continue learning and a willingness to invest in education is what separates the best trainers out there from everyone else. Without question, this is what’s made Joe such a highly sought after trainer and I think any trainer that takes the job of training seriously should be constantly looking to further their own education and there are few courses for trainers out there that are packed with as much solid training and diet info.
Plus, if you need CEUs for the NSCA, you’ll get a full 2.0 CEUs for going through the course so that’s a nice bonus. Personally, I let my CSCS and NSCA-CPT lapse many years ago, but for any trainer that needs to renew this is a great way pick up the continuing ed while actually getting high quality material in the process.
The course comes with a money back guarantee so there’s no risk to pick up and see if it’s for you or not. I highly doubt Joe will be getting any returns on the course, but it’s always nice to know that someone stands behind their product with such a strong guarantee.
To get all the details on the course and see how you can pick up a copy for yourself, make sure to >>> Click Here & Check Out The Peak Diet & Training Summit <<<