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8 Key Takeaways From Training with Celebrity Trainer, Gunnar Peterson

9/20/2017

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They say in order to be successful, you must model success. My dad was the first one to advise me on that one, and it was later reinforced by others throughout the years. Early in my career I decided to do just that and learn from the very best in the industry. While in College I got a chance to work at the Institute of Human Performance with Juan Carlos Santana, who to many is considered the father of functional training. I learned a great deal with him and continue to apply his many lessons with my own clients today.


Thanks to the wide world of internet, I was also able to reach and follow other celebrity trainers. One in particular was Gunnar Peterson. Who is Gunnar? He was a celebrity trainer before that word was even around. In his 30 years in the business, Gunnar has trained thousands of celebrities. Some current ones include Jennifer Lopez, Kate Beckinsale, Matthew Mcconaughey, Angelina Jolie, Tom Brady, Kim and Khloe Kardashian.


I noticed a significant difference in Gunnar versus other well known trainers. He made it all about his clients. While other trainers posted half naked pictures of them flexing and drinking protein shakes, Gunnar was making videos on how to properly execute exercises and put together a great workout. It wasn’t about how much he could lift. It was all about his clients.


That approach obviously has served him well, as today he continues to deliver incredible results to his clients (both celebrity and non celebrity) at his gym in Beverly Hills. He has a massive waiting list too.


I liked his approach and decided to implement many of his methods. Cardio interval training is big on his list. That, along with the endless research on heart and brain health is one of the reasons I incorporated the water rowers, ski erg and ardyne bikes into the K-Fit HIIT and Tight-N-Tone workouts at Studio K-Fit.


One year ago I decided to write an email to Gunnar simply to thank him for inspiring me. After I was done, I never sent it to him. I got cold feet and thought, “Oh, I shouldn’t bother him, he doesn’t have time to read these little emails”


About 1 month ago I was cleaning up my email drafts when I ran into the email I wrote Gunnar last year. Oh, what the heck, let’s just send it out! Who cares if he doesn’t get back to me.


The next day, his assistant tells me he read it and was touched by my story. She also mentioned that next time I was in LA to come in for a workout and chat with Gunnar.


WHAT!? I ‘m going to meet Gunnar?! I immediately replied and told her that I was going to be in LA the following weekend. She said he starts his workout at 5am Saturday and was expecting me. That’s usually a bit early for me on a weekend while on vacation, but given I was about to workout with the world’s top trainer, I was ok with it.


That Saturday I arrived just before 5am at his secret gym in Beverly Hills. I spent the next 3 hours chatting with Gunnar. Bigger than life, yet you would never know behind his down to earth, witty, and flat out cool personality.


Here are some key takeaways:


1.) You can’t have a million dollar dream with a minimum wage work ethic. That’s actually one of the signs up in his gym and he really lives by that. Gunnar is in his mid 50’s and still trains 10-12 clients per day, 6 days a week. The day starts at 5am with his own workout first. He hasn’t let fame deviate him from performing his very best day in and day out.


2.) He refuses to train anyone was is not interested in exercising or wants to whine and complain during the sessions. He’s not interested in running an adult babysitting service, so he only commits to those that are committed to him.


3.) Interval training is king. Over the years, Gunnar has been gifted many top of the line machines to use with his clients. Many of his workouts included bouts of interval training as he says it’s important to keep the heart rate up and increase the metabolic demand in the body. Agreed.


4.) He doesn’t let the small things bother him. In the world of personal training, it’s inevitable that clients will share many personal things with you...many of which can include first world problems that are really irritating to hear complaints about. He’s learned not to take it personal or take with him outside the gym. He says that once he leaves the gym, it’s all about the family. He doesn’t bring his work (or the drama) back home with him.


5.) Knowing how to handle people’s emotion and build them up mentally is key. This is where we dug into the psychology a bit (Gunnar has a bachelor in psychology from Duke). The mental approach to fitness is equally as important as the physical one.

You may have heard it before, your body can only go as far as the mind will allow it. Aside from fitness, working on developing a healthy mindset (and limiting the junk that you expose it too) can have a massive positive impact on your relationships, your work, your health and your overall well being.



6.) Shift to looking at food consumption with the end result in mind. Meaning, instead of feeding your desires and taste buds, ask yourself how that particular food will make you feel afterwards. It may be a temporary high, but it may not be worth the extra empty calories. Look at food as fuel, not as the temporary treat that you “deserve because of a hard and long day.” Food has a powerful effect to make you feel super energized and alert or tired and regretful. Choose wisely.


7.) A fit body is the foundation in developing a healthier overall life. Nothing is as simple as fitness, yet the rewards you reap is priceless. You get more mental clarity, you get more energy in order to soak up more of life, it inspires healthier decisions (ie: nutrition), allows you to sleep better, and helps you develop a better overall version of yourself.


8.) For motivation, find something emotionally compelling to you (ie: family). Nothing and no one else can give you more sustainable motivation than yourself.

Overall, it was an incredible time with Gunnar. Honestly, I didn’t do much “working out” as I was more interested in asking him questions and get his insights. I’m grateful for his time and his lessons. I’ll be applying many of them in my own life and hope you can grab a few valuable takeaways as well.

​Committed to your health,
Kendrick Ribeiro


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Best Type of Exercise for Aging Muscles

9/17/2017

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By now everybody knows that exercise is good for them.  From helping to develop strength, maintain lean muscle mass, burn fat, sleep better, and even help avoid certain diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes.



But did you know it can help you at the cellular level which can help delay the aging process?


What I find fascinating at the moment in the world of exercise science is the in depth studies of exercise in relation to the brain and the cells.  Recently, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. conducted an experiment on the cells of 72 healthy but sedentary men and women who were 30 or younger or older than 64.


Baseline measures were determined for their aerobic fitness, their blood-sugar levels, the gene activity and mitochondrial health in their muscle cells.  Then, the group was broken up into 3 groups for a specific exercise protocol for 12 weeks.


Group A:  Weight training only
Group B:  Interval cardio training (bouts of hard effort followed by easy efforts)  
Group C:  30 min steady cardio, plus a little bit of weight training




After 12 weeks, the lab tests were repeated with some interesting results.  Group A as expected came back with increased muscle mass and overall strength.  Group B increased endurance far more than the other 2 groups.


The astonishing results came from looking at the muscle cell activity.  The younger subjects who went through interval training had positive changes in cellular activity level in 274 genes, compared to 170 genes for steady cardio and 74 for weight lifters.


Among the older group (older than 64), the activity difference at the cellular level was even more noticeable.  The interval training group increased activity level of 400 genes, compared to 33 for weight lifters and only 19 for moderate exercise.


The cells affected are believed to influence the capability of the mitochondria, which is basically the mothership of the cell.  If you can remember back to biology class in high school, the mitochondria is referred to as the “powerhouse” of the cell.  Without enough of them (and without increasing their activity levels), the cell does not function properly and eventually dies off.


According to the director of the study, Dr Sreekumaran Nair, it seems as if the decline in the cellular health of muscles associated with aging was “corrected” with exercise, especially if it was intense exercise.  He also mentioned that the ideal workout would be interval workouts such as Tight-N-Tone and the K-Fit Experience.  These two are the like the organic fountain of youth.


Ok, maybe he didn’t add that last part in… but it’s nice to know that all those interval on the assault bike at Studio K-Fit is not just for giggles and toning your butt.   It can also maximize your health on a cellular level.  And as the studies demonstrated, it’s certainly never too late to start training.


Interval training continues to be king in the world of fitness, at least for those interested in slowing down that aging process and keeping the heart and mind in peak condition.


Keep training smart! 


Committed to your health,
Kendrick
1 Comment

Those Cookies Though...

9/10/2017

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Beside psychological barriers, we also face physiological barriers when making food choices.  

Once your favorite cookies (or treats) are in site (or even a clear image in your mind), your brain already begins to squirt out dopamine--this is a neurotransmitter in the brain that's linked in reward-motivated behavior--which then tells us that this indeed is what we need at this moment.    The picture above may have already done the trick! 

It plays a sweet song of immediate gratification and plays down any chatter of long term consequences.


Heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes are the last thing on your mind. 

Your mind (and body) become heavily obsessed on what you are focusing on...and whatever you focus on expands.  If it's within sight and it's something you really enjoy, it will be hard to simply forget about it and go on about your day.  This is why the "out of sight, out of mind" is so crucial when attempting to clean up your diet. 

To add to the element of challenge, when dopamine is released, it also triggers the release of stress hormones that makes us feel anxious.  This is why the more we think about the reward we want, the more important it becomes to us.  The more we think we have to it NOW! 

Ironically, the ultimate rewards we're looking for can elude us every time, but the smallest possibility of payoff and the anxiety of giving up the quest can keep us hooked, even to the point of obsession. 

Researchers shows that that the dopamine release triggered by one promise of reward makes us more likely to pursue others.  Dream of striking it rich or get a raise at work, and food can become really appetizing.  
 
If we're to succeed with our nutrition and our overall discipline factor, we must learn to distinguish between the false, distracting and addicting rewards we're enticed with every day,  and focus on the real rewards that give us true fulfillment in life. 


This is not to say that you shouldn't enjoy your favorite treats every now and then.  Simply becoming aware of what our bodies are doing physically can give us the tool to combat the need to always give in to the strong cravings.  
 
A simple way to clean your diet right away is to simply write down everything you eat on a daily basis for at least 3 days.  That will be enough to encourage you to double think everything before you consume it.  Our favorite app is the "Lose it" for tracking foods.

Keep your eye on the prize...but most importantly aim for progress each day with your nutrition.  Soon you'll make that 80/20 approach a natural habit in your life. 
 
Speaking of the 80/20 approach, we'll be doing that during the 21 day K-Fit Reboot which starts on Tuesday.  You'll have a total of 4 cheat days during the challenge (that's the 20%).  The other 17 days we'll be focused on eating as clean as possible;  no sugar (including hidden ones), no processed food (if it has more than 5 ingredients), no alcohol.  


In addition to our small group workouts at Studio K-Fit, we'll include some workouts you can do on your own as part of the daily goals in order to fully reboot.   Email us if you're interested and we'll get you set up. 
​


Committed to your health,
Kendrick 
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    Kendrick Ribeiro, MBA, MS, CSCS

    Knowledge is only potential power, until you act on it.  Our hope is that this blog gives you the inspiration needed to create healthier habits, and steer you in the direction of developing the best version of yourself.

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