Nearly a decade ago, after recovering from a serious knee injury and subsequent surgery as well as crashing a motorcycle, I looked for a trainer to help get me back into shape. This is how I met Ray Grijalvo. There are plenty of surveys online which tell you all the things you should look for in a trainer. I will tell you this, when you have a 6 am session and your trainer literally jumps over the car parked in front of the gym on his way to the front door it is a very good indication that this is the right guy.
I told Ray all the things I couldn’t do that first day. We started training for an hour a day 3 days a week. His energy, passion and knowledge were so contagious that before I knew it I forgot my limitations and found myself pushing harder and harder. From one hour a day, three days a week I wound up training three hours a day seven days a week.
They say that we stand on the shoulders of giants and it is true. Ray is absolutely one of the giants I stand on the shoulders of and my love for fitness is, in a large part, due to his influence on me.
Ray’s current project, Zero to Hero: Super Dad Transformation is something absolutely worth checking out. He can be found on his Facebook page at Zero to Hero: Super Dad Transformation
While we have different methods and different goals, I cannot say enough how influenced by this man I am and am very pleased that he agreed to do an online interview.
WB Fitness: Ray, one thing I remember about training with you was when you would come in and say you had a new idea that would be “Fun.” I knew I was in big trouble. Can you describe what “fun” is to you?
Ray: I definitely had a different definition of fun as a trainer and coach. Usually fun is something that comfortable, playful and exciting. Often it can be associated with something easy and with light or minimal effort. My version of fun comes from a competitive nature. Growing up I considered having the most fun when I was trying my hardest to beat either an opposing player, team or self in a given competition. Fun was and still is taking your body to the limit without injury proving your absolute best no matter the outcome. As long as you give it your all, come out of it unharmed, and with a good nature I call that fun.
WB Fitness: I have a client now who can only do bodyweight training. I remember you had the ability to break people down using just a towel. Any advice on people working with only bodyweight who want to build muscle?
Ray: I love body weight training. Especially later in my career I can really appreciate the challenges of it both for myself as well as my clients. If we look at building of muscle first we have to look at the factors that affect it, nutrition, load, speed and volume. Even with just body weight you can find what I like to call pinnacle movements for each body part. For, example the push up. We can take the push up to it’s pinnacle movement the planche to handstand press up. This demonstrates complete control over the entire body with heavy focus on the chest shoulders and core. This may not be the goal of a person looking to gain muscle mass but all the progressions are there needed to gain it. So my advice for a person looking to gain muscle only using body weight is first and foremost make sure you consume enough calories to get there. Next you need to put in the work. So going back to the push up, you need 3 progressions/regressions for the movement. Your base level to test and build. Your regression to hit volume safely and with speed and finally the progression used for overload. After a few weeks test it and if mastered then move to a new set of progressions/ regressions.
WB Fitness: Do you have an overarching philosophy with regard to your training?
Ray: My over reaching philosophy ever since I started my journey is that everyone is an athlete. Regardless of skill level, injury or current physical ability anyone with the right guidance can perform activities that require skill, balance and strength.
WB Fitness: I recall one afternoon where I used you as a kettlebell. At the time I thought about how impressed I was with myself for being able to swing you, but as time went on I realized that you were showing an insane amount of strength to hold that position. For guys like you who aren’t huge I think it is great for them to see that incredible amounts of strength are possible. What do you feel is the best way to build pure strength?
Ray: The best way that I found to build pure strength is to compete. Whether it’s yourself or a partner competition will push you be stronger, faster and better. I trained in all categories to gain my strength. I was not going to be someone who could just lift heavy and not be able to crush my mile run. I didn’t want to just be strong and not be able to touch my toes. Pure strength isn’t just about how much you can lift. It’s about how much you can lift over and over and over again without breaking.
WB Fitness: With regard to diet, is there anything you think people really need to either focus on or avoid?
Ray: Diet is an interesting subject. There is an immense amount of information with a lot of it being contradictory. Throughout my career I have seen 4 things make a huge impact both on myself as well as my clients. The big 4 to avoid are sugar, dairy, wheat, and alcohol. I’m not going to say I am perfect and avoid these all the time. The fact is I know how my body will react to each of these choices and if i still choose to have them then I should be prepared to feel the consequences of it. Ie. sugar makes me crash. So when I go out with friends / family and we do the dessert run I know I’m probably not going to feel all that great afterwards if I take in too much sweet.
WB Fitness: Having seen hundreds if not thousands of clients over the years, what do you see as a common mistake people make and how can they avoid it?
Ray: The most common problem that I see is that people get right into the meat of the program and then that’s it. There are different phases to a workout and each are as important as the resistance part it self. Priming the body for CORRECT movement. Creating reaction speed and building strength. Turning up the metabolism by pushing for max strength or heart rate and then finally relaxing and bringing the brain and body back to a state of zen.
WB Fitness: One thing I think you were great at was motivation. I always wanted to push harder when you were in the room. I remember when I was at my absolute last push-up rather than let me stop you would just sit on my back! How can you tell when someone really has had enough versus when they need more motivation?
Ray: That was a great memory. There are degrees of freedom when it comes to movement. As much as I could I chose exercise that were safe to hit fail points to reduce the risk of injury. What I mean by degrees of freedom is that with every movement there is a risk versus reward for that movement for that person. So the reward of pushing to failure and then some becomes creates internal motivation to get it the next time. If, we were to look at a big deadlift or bench press. You would want to make sure you have all your safety checks in place before hitting your 1RM that way you are safe even if you fail.
WB Fitness: How do you feel about supplementing weightlifting with things like yoga or Pilates?
Ray: Supplementing weight lift with yoga or Pilates really depends on the person. Personally, I think it’s great but that doesn’t match my need nor desire. I can build full ranges of motion and core control with using various pieces of equipment from a ViPR to a TRX and a kettlebell or even body weight. For others who do not have either the equipment or knowledge base I think that yoga and Pilates are a great tool to build control, range of motion and flexibility.
WB Fitness: I remember you were very fond of Tabata workouts for lean muscle. In the nearly 10 years since I trained with you, do you still have your clients doing Tabata workouts?
Ray: Tabata is still one of my favorite interval training protocols. When performing a true Tabata you are working at maximum intensity for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds rest for 8 rounds. The problem is not many people know what maximum intensity is or feels like. So I think as you do more you start to get a real feeling and understanding what it can do.
WB Fitness: For people with limited time who want to get a little work in to stay healthy, do you have any advice?
Ray: Mastering your time within a workout I believe is essential when integrating it into a life. Between family, kids, wife and a career you want to get the most out of your training in the least amount of time. You can pump out an insane amount of workload in a short amount of time ie. a 10 minute finisher. You can think of an AMRAP for this one. 2 thrusters, 1 push up 4 pairs of mountain climbers. Repeat this cycle as many times as you can in 1 minute. Rest for 15 seconds and then do it again and again with a time cap of 10 minutes. Stretching, foam rolling, trigger point therapy, nerve and muscle flossing can all take about that long as well and be spread out through the day. Ideally you want to be able to have that 30 – 45 minutes for yourself but sometimes life gets in the way. And when it does you need a plan.
WB Fitness: Do you see anything in the current trends today that you think people should avoid?
Ray: The current trends are pretty interesting as I have been either on it or ahead of it for my career. HIIT Training, recovery, Yoga, power, speed. The trends are really just taking different parts of a training program and trying to showcase it as the one and only thing that’s needed to be fit. HIIT training without learning motor control a perfect way to get injured. Many clients I have worked with loved p90x or insanity but got hurt after awhile to due to impact and not choosing their appropriate starting points. My take on the trends is that they are usually too much for the average person and need to be scaled up better.
WB Fitness: When it comes to cardio, what is your preferred method?
Ray: My preferred method of cardio is either circuit training or flow work. Circuit training is taking a group of exercises together and streamlining it with little down time. Once you add load and volume on top of it your heart rate starts to soar. Flow training on the other hand one of my favorites are KB work gets the heart rate going pretty quick and can hold you at that heart rate for the entire duration. Think about a two handed kB long cycle for 10 minutes. It’s brutal but I also find them the most fun.
WB Fitness: What advice would you give people who want to start getting fit but have back issues?
Ray: Back issues has been a specialty of mine for a long time. Back issue tend to occur from an overly tight superficial back line ( fascial system ) or posterior chain. That is feet, calves and hamstrings are overly tight, and hip are anteriorly tilted. On top of that the upper body is also tight with rounded shoulders and a forward shifted head relative to the torso. So what can we do about it? Start slow …. Stretching at first can be a workout just getting into position. Every week and a little bit more work. Stretch and then do squats followed by stretch and just do push ups. And so on. Depending on how much pain as well as the experience of the person the best option is to go slow and test what the body can do before throwing a whole lot of volume and load at it.
WB Fitness: Do you recommend eating before a workout or going in fasted?
Ray: Eating or fasted is a great question. I say it depends on the goal. If, you are looking to speed up metabolism and shred body fat I would go fasted. If, you are looking to add more strength and size I would say eat. My preference is eat not a lot just a little extra fuel so I don’t feel like eating everything in sight afterwards.
WB Fitness: Now that we are getting to summer and pretty much everyone is trying to figure out how to get nice visible abs, do you have any tips for achieving that goal?
Ray: With summer quickly approaching I would recommend two things. Intermittent fasting and sleep. Intermittent fasting has been shown to decrease insulin and deep sleep for cortisol levels. Match that with increasing HGH through interval training and finally decreasing environmental estrogens you have a recipe for abs. There is more to abs than just calories in calories out. I have had people step on stage show ready but felt terrible because of restrictions. They were at their happiest when they saw their abs but not when they had to start getting shredded. For the most part people will be happy with a flat stomach and with some extra effort they will see their abs. With increased intensity and discipline they will have their summer body’s ready to show off.
WB Fitness: What is your favorite way to isolate the glutes to avoid old man ass?
Ray: Old man ass … hahaha. My favorite way to isolate them is to squeeze them for as long as possible. Just kidding. Since we are talking isolating I would have to say glute bridges. Both single and double. The hips can rotate seperately from each other and can have it’s own specific movement pattern. Therefore, glute bridges need to be done as a bilateral movement as well as a unilateral movement.
WB Fitness: You and I used to train 3 hours a day together on a lot of days. What are your feelings on “overtraining”
Ray: Over training can become a big problem especially when new to training. The signs you want to look out for are constant fatigue, lack of gains in speed, strength or endurance and excessive pain/soreness. Taking into account nutrition is on point. You can build up your body to take on more volume of training over time but it needs to happen at a gradual pace. By the time we were training up to 3 hours a day it took you some time to do it and even more time to push as hard in the first hour as you did in the last hour. At the same time we worked total body with a focus on one area and not the same area repeatedly over 3 hours.
WB Fitness: What do you think about these obstacle course races that have grown in popularity over the last decade?
Ray: I love the obstacle courses. That really comes back to my definition of fun in a practical manner. Where else do you get to test your self in all forms of movement in a competitive and supportive environment with relatively low risk for injury. Climbing, crawling, lifting, running and burpees are all there. You don’t have to be an elite athlete to compete and it gives you a goal to train for, so I love the idea because it becomes a social event as much as a test of strength, movement and endurance.
WB Fitness: Where do you stand on the use of pre-workout supplements?
Ray: Pre – workout supplements used to be a favorite of mine but I don’t recommend it anymore at least not for the average person. People already tend to take in too much caffeine and have high stress levels to begin with so adding on more caffeine, Vaso dialaters and such are not needed. I say get the energy first naturally with clean eating, movement and hydration and then when you start getting to that next level pre-workout supplements can be an option. I rather have someone learn their limits first naturally before adding on something to boost them.
WB Fitness: What is one of your favorite memories being a trainer?
Ray: My favorite memories continue to be the look on a clients face when they achieve their goals. Whether it is a weight goal, body composition, movement or feat of strength the look and voice of accomplishment is what makes this all worth it. Working with so many people I can’t say that I have only 1 favorite because I put a lot of myself into the people I work with I feel each of the success is very special to me.