interview with personal trainer Luis
All of last week we had a special guest here at our headquarters. Mallorca based fitness coach Luis took the time to come here and do some exclusive training with our staff. As you don’t get the opportunity every other day, many staff members took it to do some serious workout with a top coach. In our interview he shares his amazing story and what he learned while being here. Enjoy!
Hi Luis, could you tell us a bit about yourself? Where do you come from? What’s your age (most of us found it hard to guess)?
Funny that you ask my age just a few days after my 42nd birthday, jejeje!
My name is Luis Ernesto Sarabia and I was born in Havana (Cuba) December 12, 1968. I’m a personal trainer and have a degree in Sport Science and Physical Education from Havana University.
Happy birthday and all the best wishes from us! Is this your first visit in Germany? How do you like the region?
I spent the entire year 2001 travelling across Germany, performing in some amazing varieté and cabaret shows. I have to tell you that was one of the best years of my life. I loved it so much that I decided to stay, but sadly another work contract took me to France. Since then the idea of moving to Germany has always been on my mind. So, you never know I may move back one day!
We heard that you’ve been an athlete before you started your career as personal trainer. What did you do?
I started practising gymnastics at the age of six, entered the first competition two years later and won my first gold medal. Then, at the age of 12 I became Junior Cuban National Champion. My biggest achievement as a gymnast was to win 8 gold medals in the same competition, which is the maximum amount of medals you could win in a single competition. This made me athlete of the year back then and assured me a place in Cuban sport history as the second youngest person ever achieving this. I was 14 years old at that time.
I stopped competing at the age of 16 and went to Circus School in Moscow. After that I started my professional acrobatic adventure, which lasted until 2 years ago when I finally retired. I have to say that I’m the happiest and the luckiest person on the planet. I performed in more than 25 countries at some of the best venues across the world.
A couple of years ago I decided to upload some of my training videos to Youtube and I was surprised by all the feedback and user questions from users. How to train your Abdominals? How to lose fat? How to get fit? How to do a handstand…etc, etc. I started answering by writing back but repeatedly found it hard to explain some of the exercises. I then thought that it would be a lot easier to show it in a video and the response was amazing. My online personal training was born.
Online personal training … Sounds interesting. How does it work?
You send your questions and I respond with a training plan. telling you exactly what to eat, how and when to train and with all the videos of the exercises you should be doing to achieve your goal.
You can find a sample of my Acrobatics tutorials on www.myplanchetraining.com, but my official website, where I deal with my personal training business is www.luissarabia.com.
How did you come to do staff-exercise here in our headquarters in Germany? You live on Mallorca – that’s quite far away after all.
I had the honour of meeting the founder and Managing Director of print24.com some time ago. I became his Personal Trainer. We worked hard (well, he did!) for 3 or 4 month and I tell you, I learned what discipline and determination really mean thanks to this man! Later he asked me if I would like to come here and train the staff. I accepted straight away and have to tell you that I had a very interesting week.
Is our staff any different from your normal clientele?
Absolutely!!! They show huge interest, listen closely and apply every single bit of information. Some of them even came out with very interesting versions of the exercises we where doing. It was amazing. I learned more from then than they did from me! I worked with wonderful people and have been treated like a king. I wish I could be here every week to help you achieve your goals! So, again a big thanks to all of them.
Did you do this for other companies before?
It’s a big thing in the U.S.A and Canada and it’s starting to spread in the Scandinavian countries. I have done some workshops for a couple of companies in London but none as big as unitedprint!
Do you see this as a chance to convince people that keeping fit is good for them?
We all know the benefits of exercising, but find it hard to do it because of the lack of time (So I heard). Well, I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to spend hours working out to get the full benefit. You don’t need to train seven days a week and you don’t even need to go to the gym. This is my messages and all the people that trained with me this week had the chance to find out. Our workout lasted only 20 to 30 minutes and we didn’t use a single machine. You can ask the participants if it was intense and effective…
We did and we mostly received painful groans and reports of intense muscle aches. What you say seems to be quite true.
20 to 30minutes of Short Interval Training 3 times a week and healthy nutrition is all you need to get in the best shape of your life.
Do you think that fitness also plays a role in how well we do our jobs?
Fitness plays a massive role in your entire life. If you are healthy and happy you will perform a million times better. Multiple studies support the fact that physically fit employees are happier, healthier, and more productive. Fit employees create a fit company, and with health costs and the costs of running a business rising, you now have a way to simultaneously cut expenses and create a happier employee.
Good to know that we are on the right track. Thank you for talking to us, Luis, and most of all for keeping our company fit. :)
You are welcome! I wish to thank you and all the lovely people that made this training week possible! One week I won’t forget… I really look forward to doing it again!
So do we …
