Sean Hyson is a guy I’ve worked with behind the scenes for years. Not only does the guy know the industry, but he actually trains like an animal himself.

Let’s get right into it!

Sean, thanks a ton for being with us here today. Could you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?

SH: Thanks, Mike. I’ve been writing for and editing fitness magazines for almost 10 years, and I’m a physical culture addict. I’m the Group Training Director for Muscle & Fitness and Men’s Fitness, and I’ve also served as fitness editor for Muscle & Fitness Hers and Sly magazines. I’ve written for UFC and Outside mags as well, and done a little work for T-muscle.com.

I live in New York City and I’m pretty sure I’m the strongest editor… in my building. Well, at least on my floor.

Haha, awesome! What originally led you to the fitness industry?

SH: I have always been passionate about being active. When I was in college, I became obsessed with lifting. I was an avid fitness magazine reader and majored in magazine writing – in part, hoping that I could work at Muscle & Fitness one day. I was very lucky to get a job at Men’s Fitness shortly after graduating, and I’ve been there ever since.

Absolutely. I’d say your success is very well deserved, but we all know that it takes a little bit of luck to get there as well.

What is your role at Men’s Fitness?

SH: As Group Training Director, I cover exercise and nutrition for the two magazines, and I regularly get to interview and interact with some of the great minds in our industry—not least of all you, Mike!

On the side, I have my own website, seanhyson.com, where I share a lot of the information I’ve learned over the years and discuss what’s going on in “Fitness Land,” as I like to call it.

I recently released a buyer’s guide to what I consider some of the best training and nutrition programs on the market. It’s absolutely free and can be downloaded on my site.

You’ve been doing the fitness writing thing for years. What does a typical day look like for you?

SH: I call or email trainers, coaches, and nutritionists, and ask them what they’re working on, or what kind of programs they’ve got their clients on that are yielding great results.

I figure out how to distill the information down to the basics and explain it simply. I write a catchy headline and lead, drop the knowledge bombs, and then wrap it up.

It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve had a chance to meet some of my biggest influences and even some childhood heroes.

Along those same lines, I get some idea of how this works as I get paid pretty handsomely to write for various magazines and websites. What is it like on your end with deadlines, interviews, etc.?

SH: Handsomely, eh? Clearly, we made a mistake on your last check. There must have been an extra zero tacked on somewhere. Just kidding (sort of).

Yes, deadlines are a part of it, and that’s why I always like to work with writers who turn things around fast.

I love Tim Ferriss’ books, but I get tired of getting auto-reply emails saying “I only check email once a day.” Forget about that Four-Hour Work Week stuff. That doesn’t work for me if I’ve got your story ready to go to print and I need a last-minute clarification, or we had to change something and I want to run something by you.

Just a word to the aspiring mag writers out there: when an email comes in from your editor, do your best to respond to it.

If someone comes to you and wants to start writing about fitness, what advice do you give them?

SH: Apart from what I said above, you need to read the magazine and be familiar with it. This is paramount.

It doesn’t matter how great the idea you have is; if it doesn’t fit with the publication’s format, it’s no good to us.

Also, learn to think small. Everybody wants to write five-page features encapsulating their entire training system. They have to realize that that kind of space is devoted to stories about celebrities or major newsworthy issues—not your new diet system!

There are exceptions, but you have to think in terms of what is marketable. Most fitness stories are going to be around 300 words, so think of what advice you can present simply in that space.

I follow you on Twitter, and I noticed you’ve been training like a madman lately! What’s changed or is different about your training now than before?

SH: I’d like to think that I’ve always trained like a madman, but I haven’t always gotten “mad results.” I’ve been up and down over the course of my fitness career, building and losing muscle, burning and storing fat—just trying everything out in the real world where there’s stress and time constraints and learning as much as I can from it.

I was doing a block periodization program for several months and sharing my workouts on Twitter. My numbers weren’t anything to scream about, but I made a lot of gains in a short time. And, since it’s a kind of programming most people aren’t familiar with, I wanted to give them an example of how it goes.

I’ve hit some big milestones in the past year: a 500-pound deadlift (see the photo in the header!) and 405 squat (no belt). I also overhead pressed 180, which, with my long arms, was no easy feat!

Yeah, your arms look longer than most people’s legs. 🙂 Nice job on those milestones – and that killer “after” photo!

Totally random, but I could’ve sworn you said that you’ve been talking to the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger lately. Is that true? And if so, tell us more about it!

SH:  Indeed. The Governator and I go way back. Haha. No, but we have had some run-ins lately.

He tweeted about his new autobiography coming out this fall, and I tweeted back to him that I was so excited I couldn’t begin to describe it. I never expected to get a response, but he came back with something to the effect of, “How would you describe it?”

After thinking for a minute and trying to craft an appropriate response, I wrote “like I’m coming day and night”—a reference to his line in Pumping Iron, which I would hope all your readers have seen! Otherwise I just sound like a perv.

A few months later, I got the chance to interview him for Men’s Fitness and we talked for over an hour. He even asked ME some questions about Carb Back-loading, the diet strategy I’ve written so much about on my site. It was a tremendous honor and a huge, huge moment in my life.

That is awesome man! Don’t worry, you do sound like a perv. I mean, clever reference! 😉

Along the way, we’ve all made mistakes within our profession. What is one mistake you made, and how you have learned or grown from that going forward?

SH: I think being too rigid and closed-minded. When I first started writing, I was like a lot of people and thought that bodybuilding and a ton of volume and isolation exercises were the way to go.

Then I started talking to coaches like you, Alwyn Cosgrove, Craig Ballantyne, Jason Ferruggia, and so many others, and I learned more efficient methods. I started to block out any advice that didn’t square with what these guys were saying, but that wasn’t the right attitude to have.

I’ve probably seen just shy of a million workout programs and I’ve learned that as much as two trainers may agree on some topics, they can also disagree vehemently at the same time.

Just because Mike Robertson programs differently from, say, John Meadows, doesn’t mean either guy is wrong or one workout is better than another.

There’s a lot of wisdom in that old, high-volume bodybuilding training—if there weren’t, there wouldn’t be so many people who have had success with it. There are different styles of training just as there are different goals.

The most important question to ask yourself is, “Do I know why I’m doing the workout I’m doing?” If there’s a logical plan of attack behind the program you’re following, and you can understand that logic and you believe it will work for you, I think you can experience great success doing a number of so-called “crazy” workouts.

I absolutely agree with you on that last bit. Once you start to understand the why behind certain training philosophies, the more you start to see that some of the apparent contradictions aren’t really contradictions.

Sean, thanks for being with us here today. Where can my readers find out more about you?

SH: Thanks for featuring me, Mike!

Please check out seanhyson.com. I have two free e-books up there for download and I regularly post interviews with the top guys in our field. I like to say that my site is “fitness distilled”: The best of what’s out there is on here.

Thanks again Sean!