• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

  • Fitness
  • Workouts
    • Best Shoulder Workouts
    • Best Chest Workouts
    • Best Leg Workouts
    • Best Leg Exercises
    • Best Biceps Exercises
    • Best Kettlebell Exercises
    • Best Back Workouts
    • Best HIIT Workouts
    • Best Triceps Exercises
    • Best Arm Workouts
  • Reviews
    • Supplements
      • Best Pre-Workout
      • Best BCAAs
      • Best Testosterone Boosters
      • Best Bodybuilding Supplements
      • Best Creatine
      • Best Supplements for Weight Loss
      • Best Multivitamins
      • Best Collagen Supplement
      • Best Probiotic
      • Best Non-Stim Pre-Workout
      • Best Greens Powder
      • Best Magnesium Supplements
    • Protein
      • Best Protein Powder
      • Best Whey Protein
      • Best Protein Powders for Muscle Gain
      • Best Tasting Protein Powder
      • Best Vegan Protein
      • Best Mass Gainer
      • Best Protein Shakes
      • Best Organic Protein Powder
      • Best Pea Protein Powder
      • Best Protein Bars
    • Strength Equipment
      • Best Home Gym Equipment
      • Best Squat Racks
      • Best Barbells
      • Best Weightlifting Belts
      • Best Weight Benches
      • Best Functional Trainers
      • Best Dumbbells
      • Best Adjustable Dumbbells
      • Best Kettlebells
      • Best Resistance Bands
      • Best Trap Bars
    • Cardio Equipment
      • Best Cardio Machines
      • Best Rowing Machines
      • Best Treadmills
      • Best Weighted Vests
      • Concept2 RowErg Review
      • Hydrow Wave Review
      • Best Jump Ropes
  • News
  • Exercise Guides
    • Legs
      • Back Squat
      • Bulgarian Split Squat
      • Goblet Squat
      • Zercher Squat
      • Standing Calf Raise
      • Hack Squat
    • Chest
      • Bench Press
      • Dumbbell Bench Press
      • Close-Grip Bench Press
      • Incline Bench Press
    • Shoulders
      • Overhead Dumbbell Press
      • Lateral Raise
    • Arms
      • Chin-Up
      • Weighted Pull-Up
      • Triceps Pushdown
    • Back
      • Deadlift
      • Trap Bar Deadlift
      • Lat Pulldown
      • Inverted Row
      • Bent-Over Barbell Row
      • Single-Arm Dumbbell Row
      • Pendlay Row
Healthy Eating

Interview With Low-Carb, High-Intensity Proponent Fredrick Hahn

Fredrick is a long-time professional in the fitness industry. Today he's going to share some great info on training and nutrition that those new to the industry will especially benefit from.

Tom Kelso

Written by Tom Kelso Last updated on Nov 22, 2021

Fredrick Hahn is a long-time professional in the fitness industry. He is an ACE certified personal trainer, the owner of Serious Strength Personal Training in New York City, co-author of The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution along with Michael and Mary Dan Eades M.D., and author of Strong Kids, Healthy Kids. I figured someone like Fred must have some good information to share with the rest of us, especially for those readers getting started on their fitness careers. So, I sat down with him to ask him questions. Read on for a great training lesson from someone who knows both from education and experience.

Tom: Fred, can you give the readers a brief overview of your education and background in the fitness and nutrition industry?

Fred: I started out as a personal trainer for New York Sports Clubs way back in the mid-1980s. I was a Nautilus training fan then and the head of the fitness department there was also, so we got along really well. Around 1993 I became a certified personal trainer and was hired by the brand new Equinox Club in New York City. I also landed the job of physical therapy aide and personal trainer for the Hospital for Joint Diseases newly renovated sports medicine center. I was in charge of designing and implementing all the strengthening programs for the patients. After two years there, the head orthopedic surgeon was so impressed by how strong I was getting his patients he asked me to collaborate and we opened a new physical therapy company called MetroSportsmed inside New York Methodist hospital in Brooklyn, New York. I ran that clinic for three years.

After leaving the clinic, due to trouble with the physical therapists not wanting to embrace high-intensity training principles, I enrolled at Long Island University to complete my degree in athletic training and exercise physiology. But my wife became pregnant and I found a fantastic space to open my own gym less than a mile from my home, so I left school and founded Serious Strength. The name, by the way, was thought up by my father when I was training him after surgery due to liver cancer. He got off the Nautilus leg curl machine and said, “Son, I can see how this slow training will give you serious strength.” Serious Strength celebrated our fifteen-year anniversary this past June.

Tom: You’ve been in the industry for over thirty years. You’ve seen all the popular diet and nutrition protocols come and go. Based on past experiences and diligent study, you now stand firm on your nutrition and strength training recommendations. Can you share those with us?

Fred: The research on nutrition for health appears to favor a high fat, low carbohydrate, adequate protein diet that is based on real foods as opposed to manufactured foods. There are some manufactured foods that can be eaten (pickles, sauerkraut, etc.), but you want to eat mostly foods that have walked, crawled, flown, or swam or have grown out of the ground with little processing.

As for exercise, research supports resistance training as the main or central part of a person’s exercise program. In fact, if you strength train correctly and consistently, you really do not need to do any other formal type of exercises like Pilates or aerobics. And resistance training will make you better at any sport or activity that you enjoy.

So this begs the question – since we need to strength train and since strength training provides all the benefits we require, how do you go about strength training? As I see it, it should be:

  1. Safe
  2. Time efficient
  3. Productive

I base my Slow Burn program on those three principles using the current science on the subject (plus a little experience) as a guide.

Tom: The low-carbohydrate approach. Why is this superior to other macronutrient breakdown recommendations?

fred hahn, slow burn fitness, serious strength, training advice, coaching advice

Fred: Simply put, a low carb diet – or what I like to call a normal carb diet – allows your body to use stored body fat as its primary fuel source as opposed to dietary carbohydrates. This is why research always shows that people on low carb diet have low levels of blood fats (triglycerides). High triglycerides are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Randomized controlled trials indicate that keeping carbohydrates low, fat high, and protein adequate is the most healthful way to eat. This assumes you are eating real, non-manufactured foods, as many of these meats contain corn syrup solids and other hidden sugars.

Tom: In strength training, intensity of effort is required to stimulate muscle growth. Additionally, if you give it your all, there is no need to perform a high volume of work. Can you give a brief overview of the proven science that supports this point?

Fred: First, let me say that most studies on strength training are of a short duration. So it is true for advanced trainees that a higher level of volume might be required. I’m not suggesting five times the amount of volume I would suggest for the bodybuilder, mind you. But most people are not looking to become bodybuilders. In fact, in my 25 years of training people only a small fraction of clients wanted the most muscle possible. I’ve had people quit my program because they became too large!

What science does show, and what my experience tells me, is that a single set of an exercise taken to momentary muscle fatigue (or darn close to it) is sufficient to stimulate positive tissue remodeling (growth of muscle and bone). Henneman’s size principle of fiber recruitment supports this as well. There isn’t any theoretical reason to think that more volume beyond a certain point will build more muscle.

In fact, more and more natural bodybuilders are embracing and using high-intensity strength training principles in favor of high volume. It’s not that high volume doesn’t work – it does – but why spend so much time in the gym when you don’t need to? Many people live for and in the gym. They use the gym as their social network, their hobby, and their passion. So they formulate workouts in order to stay in the gym for hours at a time, most days of the week. Most of these people have superior genetics for bodybuilding, just like some people have superior genetics for modeling, drawing, or math. So for the genetically gifted, any type of training will make it appear as if their training caused their superior bodies. To a degree, it is true. But as is the case with most observational evidence, we can easily be deceived by what we see.

Tom: Consuming high saturated fats has long been a taboo. What is the latest research that actually supports the consumption of saturated fat and why is it not unhealthy?

fred hahn, slow burn fitness, serious strength, training advice, coaching adviceFred: As Dr. Richard Feinman once said to me in an effort to educate me on this subject, “You can’t be found innocent in a court of law.” What this means with respect to saturated fat is there was never any evidence that it was harmful. None. Saturated fat was convicted on trumped-up charges. So there is no need to offer evidence that saturated fats are healthy when there is no evidence they are unhealthy.

That said a recent meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at all of the research on saturated fats and their effect on our health and concluded the following, “A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD.”

Now, there have been papers that have criticized this report, but these criticisms have not put forth any evidence that saturated fat in and of itself is harmful. The naysayers point to studies where diet high in sat fat and sugar showed deleterious effects, but these papers cannot implicate saturated fat alone as the culprit.

Tom: We all know training and performance is fueled by carbohydrates, the preferred energy source of muscle contraction. Being a low-carbohydrate advocate, how would you optimize an athlete’s food intake to enhance training and competitive ability?

Fred: Depends on the athlete. New work by Drs. Jeff Volek and Stephen D. Phinney indicates fat can be made the preferred source of energy for most endurance endeavors by adopting a low-carb, ketogenic diet. But the switchover takes several weeks. Most athletes would not be interested in sacrificing that time.

Now, some athletic endeavors like MMA, sprinting, short-burst speed skating, and other highly glycolytic sports require quick replenishment of glycogen, so for these athletes a low-carb diet may not be optimal. But just an extra sweet potato or half cup of rice may be all these athletes require. No athlete requires a high carb diet. Even Dr. Timothy Noakes, author of the infamous book Lore of Running agrees.

Tom: A competitive athlete who believes he or she must perform Olympic lifts, plyometrics, and sport-specific resistance exercises comes to you for training program assistance. What advice would you offer him or her?

fred hahn, slow burn fitness, serious strength, training advice, coaching adviceFred: Well, as you might have guessed by now, I’m a fan of science. All of the different forms of training you mentioned above result in one common outcome – increased muscular strength. You’re either stronger or you’re not. And when you’re stronger, you perform better given the same skill set. But as I said earlier, the number one consideration when prescribing a training modality to an athlete is safety. If the outcomes are relatively the same but one modality is inherently more dangerous than the other, it should be abandoned in favor of the safer program.

Training fast and explosively in the training room only contributes to explosiveness on the playing field if the athlete is made stronger. And these types of training regimens will indeed make the athlete stronger, but at a price. There are safer ways to obtain the same results.

Tom: Your responses have been enlightening. Is there any parting advice you can offer?

Fred: There are many individual goals, so I can only offer a general template:

  1. Strength train twice weekly on non-consecutive days. Three tops.
  2. Take each set of each exercise to complete muscle fatigue.
  3. Add weight gradually and at each session.
  4. Use a controlled, non-explosive repetition tempo.
  5. Train your whole body at each session.
  6. Eat real food. Strive to make protein 20-30%, fat 60%, and the rest real carbs, avoiding grains and legumes if possible.
  7. Sleep well each night.
  8. Avoid excessive aerobic exercise. Nap instead.
  9. Decrease stress in any way you can.
  10. Do not take anabolic drugs.
  11. Be happy.

All photos except photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Tom Kelso

About Tom Kelso

Tom Kelso is currently an Exercise Physiologist with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. He also trains clients through Pinnacle Personal & Performance Training in Chesterfield, Missouri.

For 23 years he was in the collegiate strength and conditioning profession, serving as the Head Coach for Strength and Conditioning at Saint Louis University (2004-2008), the University of Illinois at Chicago (2001-2004), Southeast Missouri State University (1991-2001), and the University of Florida (1988-1990). He got his start in the strength and conditioning field as an Assistant Strength Coach at Florida in 1984 where he was also a weight training instructor for the Department of Physical Education from 1985 to 1988.

In 2006, Tom was named Master Strength and Conditioning Coach by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association for his years of service in the field. In 1999, he was named NSCA Ohio Valley Conference Strength and Conditioning Professional of the year. In 2001, he received an honorary certification from the International Association of Resistance Trainers (I.A.R.T.).

Tom possesses C.S.C.S. and S.C.C.C. certifications with the NSCA and CSCCA, respectively. Additionally, he is certified by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board in basic instructor development and as a specialist instructor by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. In 2012, he became certified by the IBNFC as a Certified Nutrition Coach.

Tom has worked with athletes at the Olympic and professional levels, presented at various clinics/seminars, and worked several athletic-related camps. He is a strong advocate of safe, practical, and time-efficient training and has published a collection of periodical articles, book chapters, complete books, and user-friendly downloads promoting such.

Tom received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Iowa in 1981(It's great to be a Hawkeye!) and a Master's Degree in Physical Education from Western Illinois University in 1984. He was a member of the Track and Field team at Iowa and served as a Graduate Assistant Track & Field Coach while at Western Illinois.

View All Articles

Related Posts

Chris Bumstead poses in a hallway with a cinematic-like shot in Spring 2022
Check Out Bodybuilder Chris Bumstead’s 5,000-Calorie Day of Eating Ahead of the 2022 Mr. Olympia
How to Approach Group Training
The Right Way to Approach Group Training for Optimal Results
scotcheggs2
Protein Powerhouse: Gluten-Free Mexican Scotch Eggs
carrotcr
Mash for GAINZ: 4 Simple Recipes for Performance

Primary Sidebar

Latest Articles

The Best Smith Machine for Your Home Gym in 2025

The Strongest Pre-Workout Powders to Fuel Your Training in 2025

The Best Creatine Supplements for Men for Muscle Growth and Enhanced Recovery

The Best Elliptical Machines for a Low-Impact Cardio Workout at Home

Latest Reviews

Three different power racks on a red background

The Best Power Racks of 2025: Our Top Picks for Strength Training

A collage of saunas on a red background

The 5 Best Outdoor Saunas for Getting Your Sweat On in 2025

Three rowing machines featured in the best compact rowing machines.

The Best Compact Rowing Machines for Small Spaces in 2025

Three of the best whey protein powders next to each other.

The Best Whey Protein Powders of 2025, According to a Certified Sports Nutrition Coach

woman lifting barbell

Be the smartest person in your gym

The Breaking Muscle newsletter is everything you need to know about strength in a 3 minute read.

I WANT IN!

Breaking Muscle is the fitness world’s preeminent destination for timely, high-quality information on exercise, fitness, health, and nutrition. Our audience encompasses the entire spectrum of the fitness community: consumers, aficionados, fitness professionals, and business owners. We seek to inform, educate and advocate for this community.

  • Reviews
  • Healthy Eating
  • Workouts
  • Fitness
  • News

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS Feed

© 2025 · Breaking Muscle · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Affiliate Disclaimer · Accessibility · About