Ken Hutchins
Ken Hutchins defined and popularized the Super Slow form of resistance training exercise, and developed methodology, trainer certifications, and exercise equipment to specifically support the techniques.
Career and Activities
Ken Hutchins was introduced in 1966 to strength training by a family friend who explained the importance of physical strength to musicianship and built Ken his first weight bench. Later, in 1968, this friend introduced Ken to Ellington Darden, and through Darden in 1971, Ken learned of Arthur Jones and Nautilus strength training principles. Ken's serious contributions to the field of exercise, began in 1975 when he served Darden as a proofreader and writer.
In 1977, Ken was employed at Nautilus, Inc. as a surgery technician, writer, surgical photographer, and proofreader. From 1979 to 1982, he served as inside salesperson and traveling speaker, addressing scores of Nautilus clinics yearly.
In 1982, Ken and his wife, Brenda, were sent by [Arthur Jones] to Gainesville, Florida to supervise the exercise program for the Nautilus-sponsored osteoporosis study at the University of Florida Medical School. During this year, Hutchins wrote the SuperSlow Protocol article. He refined its application with over 8000 one-on-one workouts between 1982 and 1986.
In 1986, Ken worked as an exercise equipment designer and prototypist, specializing in the application of coupled movement arms. In 1987, he compiled historical developments of Nautilus equipment and wrote video scripts for detailed Nautilus education.
After leaving Nautilus, Ken established his own exercise practice, continuing to develop the Super Slow techniques and eventually publishing several editions of a technical manual[1] for the application of Super Slow exercise. In the early 1990s, a certification program was developed for exercise professionals to bring standardization to SuperSlow training. Hutchins developed an interest group, calling it the Super Slow Exercise Guild (Inc.), which met to refine techniques and published articles in its newsletter, The Exercise Standard, from 1994 to 2000. Numerous similar methods have been spun off by members of the guild and others as their ideas or business models developed.
New York Times Magazine included Super Slow and Hutchins in its Year in Ideas: An Encyclopedia of innovations, conceptual leaps, harebrained schemes, cultural tremors & hindsight reconings that made a difference in 2001.[2]
In 2009, Ken and Brenda joined Renaissance Exercise, continuing to produce evolutionary designs for exercise equipment. Expanded exercise technique and protocol descriptions[3] were published in 2011.
Contributions
Ken's major accomplishments during the Nautilus Osteoporosis Project were:
- Composing the Exercise vs. Recreation Philosophy.
- Discovering the principle of the variable counterbalance applied to counterbalance human bodytorque.
- Identifying friction as a major issue in exercise equipment and motor control.
- Identifying four major considerations for the first comprehensive definition of exercise.
- Evolving photographic standardization for comparing the results of exercise and diet programs.
- Discovering that all human muscular functions are negative-cam effects.
- Identifying the conflict between assumed and real objective as a major psychological challenge in exercise.
In the early 1990s, Ken and Brenda developed and patented the Linear Spine(R) Machines for his company, SuperSlow (R) Systems, Inc. This equipment was designed to provide crucial exercise for severely debilitated back and abdominal musculatures.