Phil Campbell authored his first fitness
training manual over 30 years ago. While in college, he managed
health clubs and performed personal training 20 years before
it was called personal training. Two masters degrees later, and
a 20-year career as a healthcare executive that 
included
serving as a Division President with eight hospitals under his
command, he returned to writing about fitness, improving athletic
performance, anti-aging, and anti Middle-aging. He’s been
nicknamed the "anti Middle-aging guy". Phil Campbell
is the creator of Synergy Fitness a comprehensive fitness training
approach targeted at five major areas of fitness flexibility,
endurance, strength, power, and anaerobic conditioning. As a
masters athlete, Phil Campbell holds several USA Track and Field
Masters titles including first place in the 100-meter sprint,
Southeastern U.S. Championships for his age group in 2000. In
2001, he placed third nationally in USA Track and Field Masters
Nationals in his age group in the javelin throw, fifth in discus,
and he won medals in several 100 and 200 meter sprint competitions.
In his late 40’s, he won a 40-yard dash competition in 4.69
seconds. Also, he has a black belt in Isshinryu Karate, and has
competed and won first place in martial arts and weightlifting
competitions. Visit Phil online at http://www.readysetgofitness.com
"I personally follow the Synergy Fitness
Plan and recommend it to all my patients. I have been using this
program for several months, as well as giving snippets to my
patients, with great results for me and my adult medicine patients."
Dr. Keith Atkins, Internal Medicine, Specialist
Pageonelit.com: Where did you grow up and
who were your earliest influences and why? Have you always been
involved in physical fitness?
Phil Campbell: I grew up in Nashville, TN.
And my earliest influences were my parents Lee and Bertha Campbell
and my neighbors Judge Don Washburn, and Councilman Paul Blankenship.
These men were successful in their careers, community servants,
and managed to spend a lot of time with family…and neighborhood
kids.
I joined a health club at age 14 (weighing 107
pounds and one of the smallest kids in my class), mostly because
a friend suggested the idea. I learned quickly how the body responds
to exercise from personal 
experience.
Fitness training became my passion. Later, I began working at
the club to pay for my membership, cleaning equipment, and then
instructing new members.
In college, I managed health clubs and wrote a
short book on proper weight training techniques—around 30
years ago.
Pageonelit.com: What is Synergy Fitness?
How is your book and instruction different from other fitness
books?
Phil Campbell: Synergy Fitness means two
things. First, there really is synergy available in fitness training
by maximizing the benefits of releasing the body’s natural
supply of growth hormone (GH).
You can do much more than burn calories from exercise
when you achieve GH release from fitness training. Anaerobic
exercise--the short-burst, get-out-of-breath, sprinting types
of exercise--makes your body release GH naturally. Jogging a
marathon will not.
Weight training typically will not increase GH,
but high-intensity training for short bursts will to the trick.
And that’s a good way to describe GH-releasing exercise.
It’s like magic at reversing what medical researchers call
the “somatopause.”
We’ve called the weight-gain, metabolism slow-down
that begins in the mid 30s the “middle-age spread”
and the “middle-age blimp-out.” Not only have medial
researchers named the somatopause, they now show us how to cure
the somatopause. And this is the key theme of Synergy Fitness,
but it also means that there are ways to multi-task forms of
training so you don’t have to jog for hours or stay in the
gym all day. Synergy Fitness offers five levels of plans for
five different fitness levels that are based on age, fitness
status, and training experience.
My book is the only research-based health and fitness
book that’s not sponsored by a vitamin company. So readers
get the real truth with no gimmicks and no fluff. Synergy Fitness
works and it doesn’t take a lot of time per week, but it
is high intensity.
Pageonelit.com: Why did you write Ready,
Set, GO! Synergy Fitness? Tell us about this book --- How long
did it take to write?
Phil Campbell: At the time I began the book,
I was a hospital administrator managing eight hospitals. In order
to save time, I began 
writing
a white paper for those who kept hearing about the results of
my program and asking for instructions. Everyone who followed
the program, mostly physician friends initially began achieving
great results. And the comment was frequent, “you need to
write a book about this program.” A year and a half later,
the 368-page book was complete.
Pageonelit.com: Are we a healthier Nation
than we were 25 years ago? Why or why not?
Phil Campbell: The health status in America
is horrible…and going downhill fast. The “obesity rate”
is over 25% and the “overweight rate” is over 50%.
Every health/fitness statistic has moved in the wrong direction.
Fast food hasn’t helped, but it’s clear, the decline
of high-intensity exercise in this country is in direct proportion
to the increase in obesity and decline of health status in America.
Exercise is the cure, not fad diets. And high-intensity exercise
gets the job done fast.
Pageonelit.com: What has been your feedback
from readers and book reviewers? What do they say to you about
their interpretations of Ready, Set, GO!? What do they like about
the book?
Phil Campbell: The book is getting great
reviews from readers and reviewers. I hear daily that I need
to do more to get the book in the hands of more readers. Readers
are my best advertisement. An Amazon Top 10 reviewer predicted
the book to be the next fitness best seller.
The only critics are those who have not read the
book and guess that the book is simply communicating that people
need to exercise more -- and they already know that. However,
when the book is read, even physicians and fitness experts, love
the book, start the Synergy Fitness program, and get great results.
The new research on anti-MIDDLE-aging, health and
fitness is 
captivating. And
readers love the book once they read a few pages. I’m not
looking for someone to tell me that I’m a great writer,
or even the book is well written. I want to hear, I lost 20 pounds
in eight weeks, my energy has doubled, and I will do this program
for the rest of my life! And I hear this from almost every reader.
Pageonelit.com: Are you working on a follow
up? Or something totally different?
Phil Campbell: I’m working spreading
the message through a free weekly newsletter that tracks new
research in this area. And I’m working on getting the book
in the hands of more middle-age adults.
Pageonelit.com: What was the last book you
read?
Phil Campbell: The last book was a practical
read, The Advertising Law Guide by Attorney Lee Wilson.
