Fit to Strut
Need a fitness trainer? Who you gonna call? Enter FIT Personal Training Studio guru, Ramil Villamarin and wife Cecile, who is herself a trainer and a nutritionist-they are not just any trainer but they can be your personal trainer who can design a program and diet specifically to fit your body requirements.
FIT stands for Frequency or how often you should work out; I means Intensity or how hard you should train; and T stands for Time or how long you should train. Put these together and you have Ramil’s definition of fitness. Many people, he cautions, run the danger of over-training, mistakenly thinking that the more they train, the better for them. But Ramil limits his training to just one hour, maximizing what he calls the “window of improvement” when our bodies benefit from the exercise.
“Once you’ve done your warm-up, your body opens up to get ready for a good workout, which should last for only 45 minutes. That’s why you need to put the proper intensity during those 45-50 minutes. Beyond that you can over-train. So train as hard as you can in 30 to 45 minutes then give your body a rest; that’s better than doing 2-3 hours of over-training. Do this two to three times a week; you need to rest in between. You can’t train everyday or you’ll hit the wall and again, over-train. Once you over-train, you get sick, you’ll lack appetite and you'll experience a sudden loss of weight. Some people will say, ‘Look I’ve lost weight’; it turns out they have been training everyday but don’t realize that their immune systems have gone down. They are more likely to get sick,” he explains.
Ramil knows whereof he speaks, having been in the industry here and abroad for more than twenty years, eventually becoming the operations manager of Fitness International before venturing out on his own. Four years ago, he started another gym here in BF Homes and without much advertisement, has developed a loyal base of clientele. “I now have more than thirty clients, mostly from word of mouth because I only have this tarpaulin ad outside. It’s because of the results that they see. Many don’t want to leave me; they want to stay with me because one, I offer variety, and two, they enjoy the exercises. I have a client who has been to several different gyms and has been working out for some 10 years already and she was surprised by the exercises here. ‘This is just the first time I’m doing these exercises!’ she said. That’s because I design the program based on the client’s needs. Others have remarked that they’ve been here for three months already and have yet to repeat an exercise.”
FIT stands for Frequency or how often you should work out; I means Intensity or how hard you should train; and T stands for Time or how long you should train. Put these together and you have Ramil’s definition of fitness. Many people, he cautions, run the danger of over-training, mistakenly thinking that the more they train, the better for them. But Ramil limits his training to just one hour, maximizing what he calls the “window of improvement” when our bodies benefit from the exercise.
“Once you’ve done your warm-up, your body opens up to get ready for a good workout, which should last for only 45 minutes. That’s why you need to put the proper intensity during those 45-50 minutes. Beyond that you can over-train. So train as hard as you can in 30 to 45 minutes then give your body a rest; that’s better than doing 2-3 hours of over-training. Do this two to three times a week; you need to rest in between. You can’t train everyday or you’ll hit the wall and again, over-train. Once you over-train, you get sick, you’ll lack appetite and you'll experience a sudden loss of weight. Some people will say, ‘Look I’ve lost weight’; it turns out they have been training everyday but don’t realize that their immune systems have gone down. They are more likely to get sick,” he explains.
Ramil knows whereof he speaks, having been in the industry here and abroad for more than twenty years, eventually becoming the operations manager of Fitness International before venturing out on his own. Four years ago, he started another gym here in BF Homes and without much advertisement, has developed a loyal base of clientele. “I now have more than thirty clients, mostly from word of mouth because I only have this tarpaulin ad outside. It’s because of the results that they see. Many don’t want to leave me; they want to stay with me because one, I offer variety, and two, they enjoy the exercises. I have a client who has been to several different gyms and has been working out for some 10 years already and she was surprised by the exercises here. ‘This is just the first time I’m doing these exercises!’ she said. That’s because I design the program based on the client’s needs. Others have remarked that they’ve been here for three months already and have yet to repeat an exercise.”
Muscle Confusion
For Ramil, variety is the spice and motivator of training. He belongs to the school of thought that believes in the Muscle Confusion training principle where a trainer relies on a variety of exercises to prevent muscles from getting used to the exercises, forcing them to grow quicker. Confusing the muscles subjects them to stress-what he calls the “good stress”- which will make the body change.
“Some clients wonder why only one hour? They would say, ‘I used to work out for 2 hours bro….’ So I ask them, what do you do? They’ll say weight training, but I ask but what do you do? ‘Treadmill, then sit down, then tell stories, etc.’ That’s why people don’t get results. Here, when we train, some give up before the 45 minutes is over because I supervise them. They never know what I’ll make them do next. My program is if we do something today, I won’t tell you what you’ll do next time. I’ll be the one who’ll think because I don’t want your mind to prepare for the exercise because your mind will put up a defense mechanism,” he illustrates by drawing his hands up. “That’s what happens to a lot of people who go to the gym-they start making excuses when it’s time to exercise. When you ask them why they aren’t going, they’ll say ‘I have to take care of something first’ or ‘something’s aching.’ That’s the defense mechanism of the body acting up because our body doesn’t want to experience difficulty. So you tend to put up blocks. Here with me, you don’t know what to do. I think; you do. So there’s always an element of surprise,” he explains.
His clients greatly benefit from his close supervision and a personalized program, something they cannot find in the bigger gyms. “Other gyms can’t give that because of the standardization of their program,” he points out. But the benefits accrue to him as well. Designing personal programs presents the challenge he craves in his profession. “It’s more stressful for me,” he reveals, “because I need to give them the result they want. And that’s what I want-to be challenged. I’ve been in the industry for a long time. I’ve known a lot of trainers from my generation who’ve become bored already because there was no challenge anymore. Some of them go abroad; some are just coasting along. But for me, I’m looking for more challenges. “
One of his first clients has come back and has resumed training under him. It is a common enough story of former clients who find their way back to him. “They look for you,” he says, “It’s different when you have a personalized training. And my atmosphere here is different. My wife and I don’t treat them like clients but like family. My son is here so they bring their sons and daughters. It‘s very homey. “ His visitors are not limited to clients; other trainers also seek him out to update themselves and avail of his expertise.
To accommodate his waiting list, Ramil has trained his wife to become a second trainer and has added a third man in the team. He has also expanded his gym by adding another room. All these are a testament to his success as a personal trainer.
“Designing a program is not easy but once you design a very good program for your client and you see the smile on their faces-you made them sweat, you made them happy--it’s all there. It’s very important for a trainer that his heart is in it because you can download any program from the internet but will you get the result? I really put my heart into what I’m doing,” he asserts. That’s Ramil in a nutshell - a trainer with heart.
For Ramil, variety is the spice and motivator of training. He belongs to the school of thought that believes in the Muscle Confusion training principle where a trainer relies on a variety of exercises to prevent muscles from getting used to the exercises, forcing them to grow quicker. Confusing the muscles subjects them to stress-what he calls the “good stress”- which will make the body change.
“Some clients wonder why only one hour? They would say, ‘I used to work out for 2 hours bro….’ So I ask them, what do you do? They’ll say weight training, but I ask but what do you do? ‘Treadmill, then sit down, then tell stories, etc.’ That’s why people don’t get results. Here, when we train, some give up before the 45 minutes is over because I supervise them. They never know what I’ll make them do next. My program is if we do something today, I won’t tell you what you’ll do next time. I’ll be the one who’ll think because I don’t want your mind to prepare for the exercise because your mind will put up a defense mechanism,” he illustrates by drawing his hands up. “That’s what happens to a lot of people who go to the gym-they start making excuses when it’s time to exercise. When you ask them why they aren’t going, they’ll say ‘I have to take care of something first’ or ‘something’s aching.’ That’s the defense mechanism of the body acting up because our body doesn’t want to experience difficulty. So you tend to put up blocks. Here with me, you don’t know what to do. I think; you do. So there’s always an element of surprise,” he explains.
His clients greatly benefit from his close supervision and a personalized program, something they cannot find in the bigger gyms. “Other gyms can’t give that because of the standardization of their program,” he points out. But the benefits accrue to him as well. Designing personal programs presents the challenge he craves in his profession. “It’s more stressful for me,” he reveals, “because I need to give them the result they want. And that’s what I want-to be challenged. I’ve been in the industry for a long time. I’ve known a lot of trainers from my generation who’ve become bored already because there was no challenge anymore. Some of them go abroad; some are just coasting along. But for me, I’m looking for more challenges. “
One of his first clients has come back and has resumed training under him. It is a common enough story of former clients who find their way back to him. “They look for you,” he says, “It’s different when you have a personalized training. And my atmosphere here is different. My wife and I don’t treat them like clients but like family. My son is here so they bring their sons and daughters. It‘s very homey. “ His visitors are not limited to clients; other trainers also seek him out to update themselves and avail of his expertise.
To accommodate his waiting list, Ramil has trained his wife to become a second trainer and has added a third man in the team. He has also expanded his gym by adding another room. All these are a testament to his success as a personal trainer.
“Designing a program is not easy but once you design a very good program for your client and you see the smile on their faces-you made them sweat, you made them happy--it’s all there. It’s very important for a trainer that his heart is in it because you can download any program from the internet but will you get the result? I really put my heart into what I’m doing,” he asserts. That’s Ramil in a nutshell - a trainer with heart.