Brando Hasick Body By Brando Interview

Brando Hasick Body By Brando Interview

The Journey to a Better Body crosses most of our minds, at some point or another.
So why do it the mediocre way like everybody else?

Sport Scientist and Strength & Conditioning Guru, Brando Hasick teaches ordinary people how to do extraordinary things with their body. Brando's newest business venture, a gym -BODY BY BRANDO', now open in 'White City" Paddington is home to his passion for -Building Better Bodies'.

'Sharing my knowledge of the human body and how to make it better is what I love most. Constantly chasing the next step ensuring that we are evolving as individuals. 'You don't have to be the best, you just have strive to be the best version of yourself" Says Hasick.

Brando's passion for Building Better Bodies extends far beyond the aesthetics of the human body itself. He focuses on the mind/muscle connection to improve body awareness and move without restriction.

Utilising a training style like no other, Brando's approach will enable you to Perform Better, Feel Better and Look Better; the three essential features to help you reach your true potential in all areas.

By combining Strength and Conditioning techniques with aspects of Crossfit, Gymnastics, Mobility and Calisthenics; this versatility allows for constantly and ever changing training regimes, which he says 'enables you to always be learning and developing new skills, an essential part in helping ordinary people achieve extra-ordinary achievements with their body".

Brando shares his own personal mission with each and every client he meets enabling like minded people to become the best version of themselves. The Paddington based studio reflects anything but a mediocre approach to fitness. Rather it supersets education with training, to provide a unique experience for it's members.

Strength and Conditioning sessions with Brando will have you understanding your body in a whole new dimension, allowing you to reach the true athletic potential your body has to offer.

Both Personal Training Groups and One-on-one sessions incorporate core elements from many systems and protocols; to give you the Ultimate Strength and Conditioning system and ensure you get the best results.

Brando's mission is to spark the same desire he has towards training, with each and every client. For those who are Time-poor, online training programs are readily available, giving you the Flexibility to train when you want and where you want.

If you are looking to Build a Better Body, make sure you take action to become the best version of yourself. We shouldn't settle for mediocrity, particularly when it comes to training.

Body By Brando: Brandon Hasick
Instagram: @bodybybrando
Facebook: Bodybybrando
Address 30 Alma Street Paddington

Interview with Brando Hasick

Question: How would you explain strength and conditioning training?

Brando Hasick: Strength and conditioning for me is combining 3 main aspects of physical training.

1. Warm up/ mobility/ skills progression- essential to be able to increase skill development and mobility for longevity and adaptation.

2. Strength training- focusing on driving a signal from the brain to the muscles in order to increase force production (strength). As well as building dense muscle, tendon and ligament strength through spending time under tension. Usually involves barbells or gymnastics, slow and quick contractions and a mix of intensities/ volumes to ensure all modalities are trained, resulting in a highly adaptive athlete (everyone is an athlete)

3. Conditioning- usually involves low intensity/ high volume components of training to increase work capacity, increase metabolic conditioning and allow for better skill development. This usually results in reduced body fat and lean muscles when teamed up with strength training.


Question: What is Body By Brando?

Brando Hasick: Body By Brando located in 30 Alma Street Paddington (White City) is both a small coaching studio and a method of training. Body By Brando, Incorporates a sports science approach of training athletes, but for everyday people, teaching ordinary people how to do extra-ordinary things with their body. We are movement specialists who enable the general population to achieve their full physical potential. Unlike most gyms/ training methods, we don't focus on body composition or aesthetics as our sole reason for training. We focus on building better bodies in terms of injury free, unrestricted movement and unparalleled strength gains. The bi-product of this training style usually leads to a great looking body with low body fat and lean muscle, but we advocate the freedom of movement as our key initiative. When I first started coaching I noticed the general population placed athletes on a pedistool with their physical capabilities. I know that everyone has the same potential. I wanted to bridge the gap between athletes and general population. I use my skill set and knowledge to teach 'normal" people how to do things with their body they never thought possible.


Question: What should clients expect from a session at Body By Brando?

Brando Hasick: A mix between barbell and gymnastics strength and conditioning, An educating session with a hybrid between a workshop and a personal training session, either in a small group or private.

Motivation, accountability and results! Squats, deadlifts, presses, olympic lifting, handstands, muscle ups, pull ups (progressions and regressions for everything).We take pride in our ability to get you started when you've had little to no experience. The structure of our sessions looks a little something like this: 1. Warm up/ mobility/ skills, 2. Strength component (1-2 key lifts), 3. Conditioning aspect: 5-15 minutes of high intensity movement.

Question: What aspects of training are involved in your training?

Brando Hasick: The key lifts we focus on building strength on are: squats, deadlifts, presses, olympic lifting, handstands, muscle ups, pull ups (progressions and regressions for everything).We spend quality time learning the fundamentals of these lifts in a controlled environment. Smooth is fast when it comes to these lifts and we don't compromise speed for safety or technique. We have controlled working and rest periods, unlike most other gyms whose sole focus is to get their clients sweaty or 'smashed" it is often the case with our training, but it is not the intention. We learn the fundamentals and then repeat these skills over and over to drum in the movement patterns and motor control.


Question: Can you explain your unique approach to health which extends far beyond the aesthetics of the human body?

Brando Hasick: A holistic approach to movement quality and strength through range of motion is our sole focus. Learning skills and reaching the pinnacle of our physical capabilities is what is expected. Rather than allowing ourselves to be caught up on the aesthetics of the body, which is often controlled through nutrition, we focus on movement quality and the connection between the mind and muscles to learn fundamentals of how the human body should move, for longevity and functionality. There is no point having shaped muscles when you don't have the functionality or the internal confidence to back it up. From what I have found is that those who are able to perform unrestricted tasks of strength have much longer lasting satisfaction and confidence with their body than those who are worried about how many abs are showing. Why not train in a way that promotes both.


Question: What role does flexibility play in strength?

Brando Hasick: Flexibility is a key component when it comes to strength- without flexibility, there is no range of motion, without full range of motion, one can not be 'strong". Having strength through a full range of motion is directly correlated with longevity and injury prevention, as well as functionality, You need to be able to produce force from the full length of the muscle and not just partial ranges of motion. (ROM) Once your body can do this, you will have much better mind / muscle connection and physical capability, more physical capability leads to higher work capacity, more work capacity= better looking + functioning body.


Question: Can you share your top exercise tips for those who are -time poor'?

Brando Hasick: EMOM training – Every minute on the minute. You designate yourself a number of reps to hit every minute, (depending on what aspect of strength you want to target) e.g. 1 rep per minute for absolute strength, 5 reps per minute for strength and hypertrophy (muscle growth), 10 reps per minute for muscle growth and metabolic conditioning. i.e. 10 reps each minute for 5 minutes = 50 reps in 5 minutes. You work until you reach 10 reps (roughly 40 seconds if you control 2 seconds up and 2 seconds down) which leaves you with 20 seconds rest before you have to start the next set. This keeps you accountable to the work -rest ratio and forces you to work hard. It is also a great way to track progress in a linear fashion. It can be done with almost every exercise (5 sets is a good place to start and work your way up. You can have an A) minute and a B minute which you swap to target more than one muscle group at a time. E.g. Min 1= 10 x push ups, min 2 = 10 air squats, min 3= 10 x push ups etc… for 10 minutes.




Question: What is your favourite body part to train?
Brando Hasick: Lower body, in particular heavy squats and heavy deadlifts are the best bang for buck exercises ever invented. They are the biggest group of muscles. More muscle = bigger caloric expenditure = better shaping of your body (for those that care ), big strength gains (for those looking for functionality) – the posterior chain (hamstrings, gluteals and lower back) are the most vital for performance. These are the key muscles worked in these 2 movements. If I have 10 minutes to train, I will hit 10 minutes of either squats or deadlifts.


Question: Can you share with us an example of a Body By Brando workout?

Brando Hasick: Warm up / mobility
2 minutes blood circulation- bike/ rower, box jumps or skipping
Dynamic hip mobility x 5 minutes ( hamstrings, adductors + hip flexors)
Glute activation + movement specific drills

Strength
Back squats
2 warm up sets of 10 reps (progressively heavier)
5 sets of 5 reps building to heaviest sets of 5 reps
Starting a new sets each 2 minutes

Gymnastics Superset
Nose to wall handstands + Ring work
X 10 minutes

Conditioning- 10 minute EMOM
Odd minutes- 8 x Deadlifts
Even Minutes- 10 burped box jumps


Question: What inspired your passion for exercise?

Brando Hasick: As a young kid I was often injured due to having hyper-mobile joints. As an inspiring athlete, this kept me off the field and made my chances of playing professional sports a dream and not a reality. Being restricted with movement was the worst feeling and I wanted to make sure that this was never the case for anyone who valued their freedom of movement. I had a goal of bridging the gap between physiotherapists and personal trainers so that you could train in the most effective way possible, and stay uninjured and unrestricted.

I want to let everyone know that they have the potential to reach their true physical capacity, but they just need someone to teach them the skills and keep them motivated and hungry to learn more. We are only restricted by our thoughts.


Question: What would we find in your gym bag?

Brando Hasick: I'm fairly light with what I train with, I don't have too much. At my gym I would have my reebok nano shoes/ nike metcons, wearing my lululemon pace breaker shorts, my adidas weightlifting shoes, my stance socks, WODlife weightlifting belt and a hair tie. Haha.


Interview by Brooke Hunter