If you ever wondered how Britney Spears or Janet Jackson went from flab to fab in almost no time at all, trainer Tony Martinez gets the credit. Having appeared on fitness segments on Access Hollywood, Dateline NBC, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Entertainment Tonight and even the Oprah Winfrey Show, he took the time to meet with me (and torment...ah, I mean, train me) when he was in town recently, and we had a chance to talk fitness.
Tony has been extremely lucky with clients.
"I’ve had a lot of great clients – from Britney to Janet Jackson. They are all very athletic; very competitive, but very athletic. I use sports a lot (when training). For instance tennis...Britney, we hit the ball 108 times rallying back and forth. I hit the ball into the net. Britney got so mad at me I can’t believe you did this, but I think they are bred with that because they have that work ethic. They are on stage for a 90-minute performance and they are hard core, so we need to get that high intensity volume of functional training to get them in shape."
His motto for exercise, which applies to both celebrities and regular folk, is to work out smarter, not longer.
"I think that’s what people like a lot. They don’t want to go in there for hours and hours. If anything they like these quick workouts that I have for them because I make it fun for them and they like it... they like the variety of them." Tony doesn’t necessarily look at the trends as bad – as long as they are safe and the coaches/trainers are with the client the entire time, that’s all that matters.
Tony has done some work with youth and gay men in the Los Angeles gay scene, and I asked him about recent trends in the gay community where we are hearing more and more reports of young gay men obsessively training at the gym. They are seeing the photos of muscle men not realizing that, much like female models, there is some photo-shopping involved.
"I understand we all want a healthy body, to look good," Tony told me. "What you want is to look good from the inside out as well too; not get too crazy with these fads or workouts." He thinks people need to remember fitness training can be a lifestyle change for many people, and sometimes people go too extreme without the proper training, and injure themselves.
In North America, people are sold on the myth of the quick fix/take a pill and solve it, something Tony doesn’t agree with, shaming me at one point when I said I’d love to get liposuction for my modest belly. "Liposuction doesn’t work," he said. Society likes that quick fix, but "...you need to work... you work out hard, you eat, sleep. Smart nutrition is half the battle. People eat correctly when you have smaller portions – five to six meals a day. Eat the right kind of protein, carbohydrates, and fats, you see a big difference." It’s all about building smart habits you want to follow.
This doesn’t mean you deny yourself some treats. "Everything in moderation. You don’t have to go overboard. I always tell all my clients the same thing: it’s okay to have a cheat meal. You worked really hard, especially if you are working out correctly... Your body craves it; it needs it."
As for fad diets, Tony said they are a dime a dozen, with some working and some not, but the caution is that you are the guinea pig.
Regarding personal trainers, he gave this advice: "the main thing, if you are looking for a trainer, is look at his or her credentials; make sure they are always upping their value as a personal trainer – going to seminars, or they have an exercise degree. If anything, make sure they are attentive. People that look around, not paying attention, or they just want to talk the entire time, you could probably move on. You want someone who is going to be more in tune to you, because remember now, you are paying for that service."
Celebrities getting a different routine than other clients is only because, as a trainer, Tony treats all his clients differently. A routine that works for one person might not work for another. For the celebrity clients, a good physique is a necessity; they know that they need to do it as they are in the public eye. Admittedly, more than average trainers, he will get the emergency calls where clients have two weeks to get in better shape for a movie or red carpet event. Though an average person may have a similar desire, there is a bit of wiggle room. If they don’t look perfect it won’t be broadcast worldwide.
Any fit client is a win for Tony.
"The first success that I had was getting Janet Jackson to lose 60 pounds in four months. At the time, her record label wanted her to lose some weight and we did it no problem; she was on the cover of every magazine possible." Tony did concede the amount of weight loss in that time is pushing it a bit, but Tony said Janet was totally up for the challenge.
"She was going hardcore. That’s how competitive she is. She was willing to do anything I asked. We would go out surfing twice a day or we would ride our bikes." He trained every single body part different each time, did some functional training, and he thinks that is what got her to lose the weight so fast (plus the right diet plan).
I did have the chance to do a 30-minute workout with Tony and it was brutal. While I’m not in bad shape, his exercises targeted a lot of my core, an area where I know I have a weakness. I left the session weak and sweaty, and appreciative of how an effective quick workout, in its way, can be just as effective for a lean body, perhaps more than my routine of throwing weights around.
