Mrs. O was an overweight, out-of-shape housewife in her 40s who was looking for a personal trainer when a friend of mine referred her to me in Trinidad in 1991. The coach overseeing my apprenticeship approved her, and she was my first client, but I think she taught me more than I would ever imagine!
I was only 17 years old, but I had been immersed for five years in a self-directed study of exercise as I was frustrated after spending hours at the gym, and not having that much to show for it. Through trial and error, I developed a system of high-intensity, short-duration workouts that had transformed me from the proverbial 125-pound weakling into a 225-pound bodybuilder. What I hadn’t done was to make a connection between my own results and my clients’ potential. All the personal-training certification books I had studied dictated hour-long workouts with plenty of aerobics, so I got Mrs. O going on the treadmill.
As I stood beside her, clipboard and calipers at hand, my coach walked over from the other side of the gym and pulled me aside. “What are you doing?” he demanded. Surprised, I told him I was going to do some cardio and weight training with her and end our session with some cool-down exercises. The coach knew I believed in what he called “that quick-workout stuff,” and told me I had no business putting a client through the kind of conventional training I had rejected. Personal training is a craft that you master over years of practice, he said, and you can’t master something you don’t believe in or practice.
But my training regimen is geared toward bodybuilding, I told him; how could it be relevant to someone like Mrs. O who wanted to lose weight and tone up? He gave me a look and said that was something I would have to figure out, and walked away.
Chastened but exhilarated, I got Mrs. O off the treadmill and told her we were going to train a bit differently. I didn’t dare tell her we were going to do a 10-minute workout; she probably would have thought I was shortchanging her. Instead I said that today was her lucky day: She was going to train the same way I did. She was game, and we went at it, hitting the weights so hard that I doubt she had any idea how short the workout was.
We continued to meet three times a week. The sessions pushed her to her limits – I sometimes had to help her to her car afterward – but she was a trooper and gave it her all. She never questioned my methods, but I was terrified that she was not going to get the results she was looking for. By the second week, though, I could see a clear difference in her physique and energy level, and by the third month she had lost 30 pounds. Mrs. O thought I was a genius, but in truth, no one was more surprised by her success than I was. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.
I continued to use my high-intensity training method with clients in Trinidad until 1994, when I relocated to New York City. There, I spent 10 years putting what became the Naturally Intense 10-Minute Workout to the test. Applying the scientific method, I documented my clients’ training, diet, and results.
I have come a long way since then, as one of top personal trainers in New York City, the International Fitness Consultant for UNICEF and recognized now as a leading authority in high intensity training! I have had the honor and pleasure of training hundreds of men and women from their teens to their late 70s, some in great shape and others taking their first steps on the road to fitness – and every one of them who has stuck with the Naturally Intense 10-Minute Workout has achieved impressive results. Check out our reviews, read up on how the system works and the science behind it and give me a call or message so you can come in and try it out for yourself and see how you can get better results in less time! Thanks for stopping by!
Learn more about Online Personal Training and Diet Coaching with Trainer Kevin Richardson