I don’t know about you but my new year is off to a great start! Tons of exciting changes at GHF and best of all… I have an intern on my GHF Training marketing team. And by team I mean now there are two of us… me and “the Intern.”

About the Intern…

I don’t take interns on often. You have to be cut from extraordinary cloth if you’re going to roll with me. Enter Gabriel Huen.

Gabe (aka the Intern) is finishing his BS in Food Resource Economics. He swims competitively on the international level and currently holds the Venezuelan records for the 200 Butterfly and the 200 Freestyle. Gabe is also an accomplished Violoncellist having played with the Caracas Orchestra, a true Renaissance man.

One of our current initiatives is training with individual GHF Trainers and then blogging about our experience. We decided that we would do a 2-on-1 training session with GHF Trainer Zak Bietila. Zak helped Olympians and sisters Andreina and Yanel Pinto get stronger and faster for the 2012 Olympics.



GHF Training 2-on-1 sessions are a fantastic way for two people to share the cost of a GHF Trainer. We asked Zak to take us through the same style of workout that he used to help the two Pinto sisters get ready for the Olympics.

My Take…

Zak’s workout was great! I can’t speak from the perspective of an internationally competitive swimmer but my legs have just now recovered.

I liked the way the workout progressed. Zak was exceptional at having us work in tandem when appropriate and then in alternate when the exercise required a longer recovery time. The session was perfectly designed and paced for two people. It also gave us a some competitive moments which I found to be great motivation! The kettlebell work we did was more challenging stability-wise. The squats brought that sheer leg power challenge to the training.

Gabe’s Take…

“Last week I had the opportunity to be part Zak’s 2-on-1 training session, and if I had to summarize my experience in one word, it would be “impressive.”

Coming from highly competitive swimming environment, I have had the opportunity to be part of many different workouts with many different instructors all around the world, and I would have to say Zak’s work out session was up there.

He focuses on walking you through the workout helping you understand the reason why we are doing each specific exercise and what muscle strength we are trying to develop. Not only that, he was very good at pushing us above and beyond our predetermined workout goals. Zak managed to get extra reps out of both of us.

After being part of Zak’s 2-on-1 training session, I would have to say he is an excellent instructor, who has the qualifications in my opinion to be considered a world-class type of trainer. Highly recommended!”

Zak’s 2 Cents…

When we asked Zak to describe his approach to our workout he said, “When training athletes, I like to start the workout with a skilled/power movement while they are still fresh, followed by a strength exercise, and finish with core or corrective work.”

Zak’s 2-on-1 Olympic Training Workout

Here’s the workout Gabe and I completed.

• Active traveling warm up
• Dowel progression (pull through-overhead squat-sots press) 10 reps each.
• A1: Double kb clean w/full squat and press. reps= 5,4,3,2,1

A2: High plank. Time= 30s,35s,40s,45s,50s

• B1: Barbell back squat 5x3
• C1: Paloff press 3x10
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@johncarmean @Uchohuen
John Carmean & Gabriel Huen

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