You’ve seen him on TV and he works with many celebrities but is known to be tight-lipped about their identities, something the celebs must really love about him. But can I tempt him to name a celeb? I caught up with the very busy New York based world re-known celebrity personal trainer, Kevin Richardson to find out how we can all keep fit and be healthy. He also tells us about his amazing invention, Naturally Intense High Intensity Training that can help you lose weight fast and get fit in shorter time. Read on to find out more astonishing things you probably didn’t know about Kevin Richardson and get fitness tips that will change your life. And don’t forget to claim your free copy of Kevin’s Fat Loss e-Book!
How did it all start? What made you decide to become a personal trainer?
I started training at the age of 14 in Trinidad with the expressed goal of becoming a competitive bodybuilder and did my best to learn as much as humanly possible about all things related to diet and exercise. When I was 17, I had started competing but I was still in high school paying for the extra food I needed was difficult to say the least. To make some extra money my coach suggested that I become a personal trainer. I had no idea what that was, as there weren’t that many over there back then, but the thought of being able to help people achieve their fitness goals and getting paid for it sounded too good to be true!
I had a year of apprenticeship to complete after passing the required exams, but I loved every minute of it. Also, there is something rather self-centered about training and bodybuilding as a whole. It’s an incredible amount of energy, time and resources poured into yourself and you are the sole beneficiary. Being a personal trainer and sharing the knowledge that I gained while on my own personal path, to me seemed to make the pursuit a bit more communal and less ego centered. I love helping people achieve their goals and frankly it’s far more rewarding for me to see someone hit their weight loss target than it ever was when I won a bodybuilding trophy.
You are the inventor of the Naturally Intense High Intensity Training. For the few who don’t know about this amazing workout, can you explain how it works?
When I was a teenager, I found that training six days a week for an hour or more didn’t make much sense, especially when almost all of the bodybuilders training that way were using anabolic steroids and I had no intention of going that route. So, being a bit of a bookworm, I did as much research as I could on the body’s response to resistance exercise and learned that muscle growth is an adaptation to stress that the body is unaccustomed to and that without sufficient intensity or overload, muscles will not grow under natural conditions. So I started training as hard as I could and then some, going to complete muscular failure with every exercise and I found that I could barely last more than 10 minutes before being completely spent.
The growth process itself occurs not while training but while at rest and so instead of training 6 days a week, I started training 3 days a week, resting for four days. for the muscles to grow afterward and had tremendous results. When I started personal training, I realized from my clients’ successes that it was as applicable for weight loss, (I had a client lose over 100 lbs in my second year), and it has been remarkably popular ever since!
You look amazing and as anyone would expect from Kevin Richardson, very fit. What does it take for both men and women to have and maintain a fit body like yours?
Adherence to a very clean diet. Training is the easy part, but keeping your body in shape is more a function of what you eat, or more precisely, what you don’t eat! You have to make a commitment to follow your own path, as if you eat like the crowd, you’ll look like the crowd. I don’t eat junk foods, I only drink water, and no dairy, foods with added salt or sugar. Now it may sound contradictory, but eating clean and being miserable doing it is not part of a healthy lifestyle. Instead the onus is always on working towards being in a place where what you should eat and what you want to eat become one and the same. That’s the key to being able to stay in great shape for decades!
With a career spanning nearly a quarter of a century, what keeps you going?
At this point I simply don’t know any other way. I feel great in my body and I know that my training and my diet is responsible for this sense of balance and well being, so I couldn’t imagine stopping it!
You know I can’t resist asking you about the celebs you have been training. Can I tempt you to dish out a few names?
As a rule I never mention who I trained. I think it creates a false sense of accomplishment and is in a way very much bad form. Many trainers are quick to drop the names of the celebrities they trained as a way of furthering their careers whereas my feeling is that if the public can see you take a number of ordinary, out of shape and unmotivated men and women and inspire them to achieve and surpass their fitness goals, that’s what really sets you apart as a great trainer.
Working with someone who is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, (if not millions), to look a certain way is simply not the same as you will almost always have a 100% success rate. I also think that training is such a private affair that it should be regarded as such and I think my clients appreciate that. Besides, as far as I am concerned, each and every client I train is a celebrity, so where would I start if I was naming names?
One of the many things we love about you here in England is the fact you Started training at the age of 14, without the help of performance enhancing drugs. You’ve maintained the same pure and incredible high standards to this day. What inspired you to take this stance from day 1?
It wasn’t easy. Back in Trinidad where I grew up, drug use is very much a part of competitive bodybuilding and I would be lying if I said that it never crossed my mind after competing against guys on drugs. But I had this idea of what I wanted to become, and competing as a bodybuilder was just part of it, not the be all and end all. What was important was the path. The struggle, the sacrifice, the development of character through hard work and the creation of a work of art made completely by my own endeavors. Drugs didn’t fit with that vision and I can say that my heavy involvement in martial arts helped tremendously in having this steadfast sense of who I wanted to be.
Apart of your outstanding Naturally Intense brand, you’re also the creator of Dance As Art – The New York City Dance Photography Project. A project that is focused on celebrating dancers that are photographed at iconic locations in New York City. When do you find time to unwind and what do you do to relax when you’re not working or training?
Photographing dancers in the streets of New York City is how I unwind! Running your own business is quite an undertaking and photography was originally a hobby meant to give my mind a break from the pressures of entrepreneurship, and it just blossomed into where it is today, and Dance As Art will soon be a book in stores hopefully by fall 2017. I am also passionate about archery and bowhunting, martial arts, and all things aviation related.
No doubt a high intensity workout calls for the right diet. What type of foods should a person following your Naturally Intense High Intensity Training be eating?
A high, (but not excessively high), protein diet to start with moderate carbohydrates and fats. Nothing too extreme or eye brow raising, just minimally or unprocessed foods as much as possible. I often tell my clients that if you were marooned on an island and can’t find what you are about to eat there, then you probably shouldn’t eat it.
New Yorkers are so lucky to have you at their doorstep. Any chance you have plans to extend the Naturally Intense™ Personal Training service in the United Kingdom?
Funny that you would ask as I did have a documentary in the works for British television. It was to be a series with some rather prominent personalities involved where I would help a group of people lose a significant amount of weight over the course of 3 months training only 3 times a week with Naturally Intense High Intensity 10 Minute Workouts. We had a great pitch and an interested channel but as happens in show business, a buyout and subsequent change in senior administration pretty much killed the project. I did have plans to branch out to London and other parts of the U.K. at that time and perhaps it just might happen!
Tell us 5 things we would find in your fridge right now?
Water, eggs, sweet potatoes, chicken and fish.
GET EVEN MORE OF KEVIN RICHARDSON!
Learn more about Kevin’s Award Winning Personal Training Services at: Naturally Intense
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KEVIN IN ACTION ON CBS
