In addition to his philosophical work in Leadership Education, the longstanding research contribution he has made in the area of lifestyle medicine and health education is undoubtedly the Legacy for which Professor Laura is best known internationally. His most recent breakthrough in exercise physiology is represented by the development of what he calls "MATRIX QUICK FIT" (MQF). He regards MQF as a monumental advance over his original "Matrix Mega Pump Program" which provided the theoretical foundation for the benefits of other high repetition training programs such as Body Pump. Professor Laura's MQF Program is a training system which takes his original Matrix Program and his emphasis on the benefits of the Rep Effect to a whole new level of performance outcome. Professor Laura says, "My original emphasis during the 80's decade on high repetitions with light weights was clearly a move in the right direction, but I knew from my research on muscle fibre activation that I had not yet moved far enough in the right direction. By incorporating partial movements in clinically tested variations of partial repetitions in distinct holding positions, muscle fibre activation could be increased by a factor of 5, thereby augmenting neural adaptive responses to load intensity that produced remarkable changes in the rate of muscular development, strength gains, stamina, and Acute body-toning, depending on dietary discrimination. The rate of caloric deficit from a one hour training session increased from an average of 800 per hour to 1500 hundred calories per hour, almost double the best measurements associated with the High Rep Effect."
Based on years of clinical research and trials, MQF has shown itself to produce faster results than any system of exercise yet tested. Decades of continuous research and development by Professor Laura since the publication of his Best Selling book in 1990 titled ,The Matrix Principle, have provided him the research environment within which he has refined, reconceptualised, perfected and transformed his original Mega Pump Program into the most efficacious and time- efficient exercise program in the world. Extensive tests have shown that 5 minutes of MQF arm training, for example, is (in quantified categories of three outcomes) the equivalent of one full hour of conventional training, thus making arduous and time consuming exercise sessions unnecessary and a thing of the past. Professor Laura's novel development of "partial rep inverse leverage principles', along with his 'Isomatrix Static Dynamic Techniques' are being hailed by coaches and trainees alike as a revolutionary research breakthrough in Body-shaping, and Strength/Stamina training for Enhanced Sporting Performance without drugs. Matrix Quick Fit (MQF) is an unique lifetime program of fitness, based upon Professor Laura's articulation of his radically new "inverse leverage principles" which are consolidated into discrete quantum-based sequences of increasing intensity which also radically accelerate dramatic improvements in muscle tone, muscular development, and permanent weight loss, through acutely accelerated muscle fibre activation. MQF stands above other weight resistant approaches as the pinnacle of 21st Century Explosive Intensity Training Programs. MQF is the most effective system yet created to assist men and woman of all ages to transform their bodies rapidly into well-toned, fit, and healthy physiques, with the minimum of time commitment. MQF affords a complete exercise program in itself, but is also a component within a total Lifestyle Program, based on a quantum approach to health and happiness, based on the most advanced Quantum ideas on "Laws of Attraction" and Matrix Mindpower Principles of Self-Empowerment.
Since his arrival at Newcastle University, he has served a six year term of office as Dean of the Faculty of Education; three years as Head of the Department of Education, and three years as Coordinator of its Honors Program. Professor Laura was twice been elected as President of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australia, and twice elected Chairman of the New South Wales Deans of Education Committee. He currently has 25 doctoral candidates under his supervision, the largest doctoral supervisory load undertaken by any university academic in Australia. Many of his students are specialising in Exercise and Lifestyle Medicine. During the last decade, five of his graduating students have won various prizes at State and National levels for the Best Doctoral thesis in their graduating year. In 2012 one of his students, Dr Amy Chapman, won multiple awards at School, Faculty, University, State and National levels for the most outstanding doctoral thesis of the year. In 2014, another of the doctoral students working under his principal supervision, Dan Zhou, has been awarded the doctoral degree, with referees reports unanimously agreeing that the thesis is deserving of an academic prize, and publication. On the basis of these highly complimentary examiners' reports, and their recommendations, the thesis has now been nominated for the 'Outstanding Research Thesis of the Year', 2014.
His lifetime commitment to drug-free bodybuilding and sport was in 2012 honored by Hands On health International with an Award for a Decade of Voluntary Charity Service Coaching, working with disadvantaged people in Australia. During his time at The University of Newcastle he has served on the Editorial Boards of numerous scholarly journals and international health magazines. He was for ten years on the editorial board and a feature writer for Joe Weider's Muscle and Fitness magazine, with a monthly readership of seven million worldwide. He was previously appointed Director of the IFBB Weider Research Clinic in Australia, initially known as the Human Performance Research Centre, a position which he held for ten years, teaching people about the remarkable benefits of Matrix Mega Pump Training.
Within the context of the Good Morning Newcastle NBN TV Program, Professor Laura also had his own very successful Matrix Mega Pump TV segment in Newcastle, Australia, hosting the segment with Belinda Greene, former Miss World. He thereafter worked collaboratively with Professor Saxon White, then Professor of Physiology at Newcastle University, to establish The Hunter Academy of Sport, and then served for two years as the Foundation Chairman of its Sports Medicine and Health Education Committee. During this period he and Professor White organised the first International Conference on the Drug Problem in Sport, featuring contributions from Olympic athletes, coaches and judges; Olympic Committee Executives, and international researchers in the field from around the globe. He and Professor White later edited the book titled, The Drug Problem In Sport, which became not only a best-seller, but a frontier book in drug education which still remains widely read today.
Professor Laura was also for many years a feature writer for Paul and Carol Graham's Australian edition of Muscle and Fitness and Flex magazines, both of which did much to promote drug free and healthy bodybuilding for Australia's athletes, young and old. Professor Laura was appointed as an Australian and International Bodybuilding Judge for the IFBB, not only judging, but also often acting as compere for many top-level competitions in Australia and abroad, over the course of two decades. At the World Bodybuilding Championship in Paris, France, he was awarded a Medal of Honor from the IFBB and the USA National Academy for Sports Medicine for his 'pioneering research developments in Matrix Training as a genuine alternative to the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport'. The Medal of Honor was presented in Paris by Dr Robert Goldman, then President of the USA National Academy of Sport. In addition to Professor Laura's editorial and advisory research work for the IFBB and Weider Publications, USA, Professor Laura has served on the editorial boards of many Scholarly Journals. He has also been a feature writer for many other fitness and health magazines, including Muscle Power (UK), Australian Fitness and Training, Pump, Triathlon, The Coach, Nature and Health Magazine, and was a feature health column writer for the internationally well-known woman's magazine, Vogue, and currently writes for online publications such as Women's Health Open Journal.
In addition to his successful and busy academic life Professor Laura has a number of serious hobbies. In addition to being an accomplished musician and singer, he also cultivates many rare and endangered species of Australian native flowers, and has won several first place prizes for the beautiful garden at his home which he designed himself. He has previously been featured on the Don Bourke TV Garden Show, as a tribute to his successful ecological commitment to the preservation and personal cultivation of Australian Flora. More recently, he has been cultivating an increasing number of fruits and vegetables from his own garden, many of which he uses in his Italian cooking. He is a gourmet Italian Chef and is presently writing a cooking book which incorporates disquisitions on the historical and socio-cultural evolution of Italian cuisine.
Professor Laura has a number of more unusual hobbies as well. He has a passion for competitive Club Race Car Driving, and is a Lifetime Member of the BMW Race Drivers Club and the Australian Race Drivers Club. He collects rare BMW and Italian Race Cars and has won many show prizes for his beautifully preserved Motorsport History Icon Vehicles. In the sporting world, Professor Laura was the first National Title Holder of the Professional Australian Arm Wrestling Championship, sponsored by Solo Beverages, plus the winner of an additional Four State titles to his credit. He previously placed fifth at the World Open American National Arm Wrestling Championships, held in Baton Rouge, USA.
Using his Matrix Training Techniques, he now helps to train a number of world class competitors in this rapidly growing sport, including his Matrix-trained son, Adam, who in November 2014, won his third National Australian Arm-wrestling title, taking home two Gold Medals, winning both the Left hand and Right Hand titles at the competition. His son has now received sponsorship to compete in the World Championship in 2015. Professor Laura has himself also long been a Mixed Martial Arts enthusiast, and a successful Powerlifting Champion. He is a former World Record Holder in the Bench Press, lifting two and a half times his bodyweight. Despite his extremely busy schedule, Professor Laura stays super-fit, using his now world renowned MATRIX QUICK FIT System of Body-shaping. In April 2014 members of his MQF Clinic witnessed him bench press 100kg (not including the weight of the bar), for 30 consecutive repetitions, which has been recorded on video. This is an amazing feat of strength for anyone, but especially so for a drug-free athlete such as Professor Laura.
Last, but not least, Professor Laura is conversant in many languages. In regard to his love of language acquisition, he recalls warmly the time his father visited with him for dinner at a Harvard University foreign language conference, where he heard Professor Laura speak ten languages during the course of the night. When he asked his father how he enjoyed the evening, his father coyly replied, "What can I say?", you give a whole new and 'multiple-meaning' to the idea of 'having the last word'.
With no intention of slowing down, Dr Laura intends to continue teaching, motivating and changing the lives of people globally through his unique style of teaching, Life Coaching and his Matrix Quick Fit (MQF) program.
Dr Laura is conversant in 12 languages, and resides in one of the beautiful harbours of Sydney.
