It’s week three everyone, officially longer, but if you subtract my time away in Addis… you catch my drift. Anyway, I’m super excited to tell you about my trainer at BFX Studio, Derek. Let’s make it very clear, I AM NOT OBSESSED WITH HIM. I just happen to find him very interesting. Like Rachel Maddow interesting. You just want to sit down and pick their brain to understand what makes them, them. For instance, he’s a trained dancer that gave up medical school, where he planned on becoming on a Pediatric Surgeon, to pursue his passion for dance. Or how about this one? His favorite color is the blue of his late grandfather’s eyes.
Many times I’ve asked out loud, and in my head, “Who are you?” He’s nothing like the stereotypes you see or hear about, but he’s also not lackluster like the trainers you fear you’ll be stuck with. He’s just Derek.
How did you get into training?
I got into training through sports and dance when I was touring with Pilobolus Dance Theatre. We started teaching a lot of partner contact, weight sharing classes and developed fitness classes out of that. And then, while I was on tour, I also wanted to get certified because I knew I wanted to work with people in that way as well. Because of my understanding of dance, because of my sport background, because of my sick fascination with the human body – that’s why I was going to be a doctor. I figured this would be a great way to help people, change people’s lives and be a part of people’s lives.
So if you weren’t a trainer, what would you be doing?
Nothing, because I’m still doing the other thing I would be doing, and that’s being an actor. I’m doing both and my life is beautiful because they balance out each other.
What’s the biggest joy you get from working at BFX whether it be professionally or personally?
The biggest joy professionally is really being able to have this private training floor and have the client feel like it’s their floor. It’s a super safe environment with all the latest gadgets and gizmos it really is, for me, an amazing experience that I haven’t had in other places. Personally, I love everyone that works here. Everyone is really cool and really talented and knows what they are doing. I can sit down and have conversations with other trainers about if you had this injury with a client, how would you handle it. Or if you had this exercise and the client really wanted to try and do this, how would you approach it? Then you can kind of battle back and forth about which approach would be better, while respecting each other.
What’s the largest misconception do you think personal trainers get?
There’s a bad rap about trainers being egomaniacs. And just trying to look good, and workout, have the body, so that we can look good and be all about ourselves by how many clients we train or how much we charge. Anytime you’re doing those things that you are in the statement, then you’re not focused on your job.
How do you decide on what to do with your clients?
Well the normal traditional boring way that we do, that makes sense, is we meet a client and do an intake. We talk about injuries, what their fitness background is, what they are currently doing, what things they want to change, and what goals do they have, and what goals make sense to have. Then we put together a program that can help correct any injuries at the same time doing any fitness changes. And that’s a tricky balance because a lot of times people think they want a certain thing, but actually need more of something else.
What three songs or artist would we find on your iPod? You can choose.
Artists. Ray LaMontagne, James Brown, and, right now? It’s a right now question, right?
No, always or right now.
Ok, because right now I’m digging on The Lone Bellow. They’re a very cool band. So The Lone Bellow, Ray LaMontagne, and always James Brown. James Brown never leaves my iPod!