It’s summer, and I made the decision that I am going to wear a bikini on the beach and not cover myself up with a moo-moo as I have been doing every year since I can remember.  My first inclination was to join a gym.  Our fitness editor, Anthony Heredia, had a deal where I could join his gym for a discounted price.  It was tempting, and I even told him I’d do it.  But I kept getting this nagging feeling that even as much of a deal as it was, it was no deal for me.  You see, I have a real problem with gyms:  I hate waiting for equipment; I’m self-conscious about working out in front of a lot of people; and I know that my motivation to continue going regularly would wane.  So, I was hoping for some kind of a sign that I was making the right choice.  That day I came home and in the mailbox was a flyer with a female in a swimsuit with ripped abs, claiming that you too could lose 33 pounds fast!  I took that as my sign, and I signed up immediately.  Yes, it was an impulse, but I had exactly 33 pounds to lose!  It couldn’t have been a coincidence.  I stopped believing in those ever since I saw and read The Secret!

I’ve been going to my bootcamp now for almost two months.  I have lost 17.5 pounds, and my body is becoming stronger and more sculpted.  I have to get up at 6:00 in the morning—that’s hard since I’m a night person—but I’ve adopted better sleeping habits, and I’m managing to do it.  I’ve only missed two classes so far.  In addition I feel better physically and mentally ever since I committed to it.  Ha, I even dragged a few neighbors to a class, and one joined!  I’m the best advertisement. “How did you lose so much weight so fast?” is the question they asked.  I decided that I wanted to share my secret with Agenda’s readers, so I interviewed Guy La Brusciano, the founder of The Basic Weightloss Bootcamp.  Summer has just begun, so if you were thinking about getting fit, now’s the time.

Interview by Kaylene Peoples
Responses by Guy La Brusciano

Guy La Brusciano

How did you get started doing fitness training? How long have you been doing the boot camp?

I guess it really goes back to growing up in Philadelphia. I was sort of a little kid that was not very strong or muscular, so I started lifting weights to try and get bigger and stronger. Then studying martial arts, starting in my teens, also helped to open up a whole new realm of possibilities on how to train the body in a more ”wholistic” way. The culmination of all of this led me to seek out more information on how to improve my athletic performance and then ultimately to studying Athletic Training and Exercise Science and University.

I also had severe gastro intestinal problems when I was a child. The pain was so intense that I would sometimes have to lie down in the fetal position when I was outside playing with friends.  My family did not have a lot of money, and my dad was not real big on doctors; so as a result I was left to try and sort out the problem on my own.

What I found was that it was the food I was eating. Certain foods just would kick the crap out of me. As I observed how I felt after eating certain foods, I gradually gained control over the problem and this led me to grab a hold of everything I could on the subject of nutrition and holistic healing.

So that was the start of the journey. Then I found myself in the USMC. During my four years in the Marines, I continued my quest for knowledge in the area as well as having to train the men I was in charge of. So this started more of the coaching attitude and mindset. Then once I got out of the Marine Corps, I settled here in Southern California and I had a choice to lifeguard or to pursue coaching and training people. There was just way more satisfaction from coaching and helping people to achieve their goals, so I took that path.

Now 20 years later and a whole lot more training and experience in the field of “wholistic” nutrition and postural alignment and functional fitness, here I am still at it.

Who inspires you and why?

Many people inspire me. And I understand your question.  You want to know what person inspires me in the field of fitness. But truthfully, the people who really inspire me are the ones who are not naturally fit or lean or a size 2, but they still get out there and give it their all to achieve their fitness goals.

We all have certain things that we are better at. We all have certain challenges. I always admire the people who overcome the challenges.

In the realm of the fitness community, I am always inspired by innovators.  I am talking about true innovators, not just people who repackage things and call them something new like “muscle confusion” or “core secrets.”  People like Pete Egoscue, Paul Check, Bill Walcott, and Joseph Pilates; guys who looked at a problem and then went about solving it.

I am always for a better way to do things and a smarter approach to help people. If I can contact more and more people and bring them over to the correct way of caring for and exercising their bodies, then I have done my job.

Just as another side note about what I do in terms of my approach, I look at the overall whole, not just the parts. I do this both nutritionally and posturally and physically. We always get the person to work on the proper realignment exercises for their particular body issues. This is where I use what I have learned from the Egoscue Technique to help people rehab injuries and to avoid potential injuries, as well as to realign their bodies so that they stand taller and more aligned.  Nutritionally, we always take the approach that not everyone has the same body type, and thus each person  will respond differently to a particular diet. So one size does not fit all when it comes to prescribing an eating program. This is where the use of Metabolic Typing, which has been extensively researched and written about by William Walcott, comes into play. This allows us to really pinpoint which foods that person will respond best to.

What fitness advice can you give to someone struggling with her weight?

The unfortunate fact is that the vast majority of Americans are struggling with their weight and physical health. In my experience people are statistically living longer than they were, say a hundred years ago, but functionally and metabolically, they are in a much worse condition than they were 100 years ago. This is witnessed by the proliferation of such conditions as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, as well as a host of orthopedic issues, such as back and disc problems, plantar fasciitis and knee injuries and problems that just did not used to be so prevalent 100 years ago.

So to answer your question, the first thing I would say is, do something!  Get help with your nutrition and exercise. Get into a class. Hire a trainer. We all do better when we have a coach or a group to help us.  Make it a routine. Consistency, not intensity, of your exercise is the most important thing when it comes to long-term results.

I am in your class, and I can see why they call it a bootcamp!  It is intense.  You get up early just to work out nonstop for that hour.  I have seen results quickly and am grateful for that.  Have there been any difficult cases where some people have struggled with their desired results?  If so, what did you do to help get them on track?

Sure this happens from time to time. Everyone is different, and each person comes to different realizations and understandings at their own pace. So some people fight some of the lessons and assignments for a while. This then slows down their progress. Some people feel they already know some of the stuff, and this can interfere with their ability to learn something new about their body or their nutritional or exercise program.  So I just keep the basics reinforced with the person.

In my experience it is always the basic actions that, when followed, yield the best results. Whenever I go looking for an unusual solution for people, it usually turns out that they were just not doing the basic actions on a regular basis.  When I say a basic action, I am speaking of something as simple as keeping a diet journal. It can be a drag to have to write everything down, but it really makes a huge difference in the results that people can get. And when they write things down and are honest about it, and they are not making progress, then I can more easily help them by quickly looking at the diet journal to spot what is causing the lack of results.

Not doing the basic actions can also stem from the fact that the person does not understand something about what they are supposed to be doing. In that case it is then just a matter of getting things cleared up for the person so that they can in fact understand what and why they are doing something.

There is always a reason why things get better or get worse, and the key is being able to spot those things. I can help them do it, but they have to be honest about the process and what they are doing.

You emphasize nutrition as the key to weight loss.  How then does the working out help?

Changing your food is key to dropping weight. However, you will not get stronger muscularly without exercise. Or to put it a different way, if you want the muscles to look young, firm, and supple, then you better sweat. If you just want to look like a bag of bones, then you better diet. If you want to look thinner while being toned, looking younger and being stronger, then it takes nutrition and exercise in concert with one another.

The way exercise specifically helps you lose weight and body fat is that it makes your body run at a higher rate. It increases your metabolism. I am sure you have heard that before. What that means is that your body has a certain energy expenditure it puts out each day. This energy expenditure is dictated by the amount of motion in your body. The more motion in the body the higher the energy requirement.  When you have more muscle, there is more motion in your body, more blood flow, and more chemical reactions that require more energy to run the functions of the body. Fat has less blood flow and less chemical reactions, so it requires less energy to maintain.  So more exercise equals more muscle, which equals more energy required to run the body, which means a higher metabolic rate, which means the body burns more fat as a natural part of its daily activity.

What are some of the keys to proper nutrition and what is the best way to maximize each workout?  Dos and don’ts for food.

As I said previously, no one approach works for all body types. Some people need more protein and fat while others will do better with a higher volume of carbs.  The key would be to assess each person to see what his/her own unique metabolic type is. This is something that they get when they come to BASIC Weight Loss Bootcamp (www.basicweightlossbootcamp.com).  We assess each person to see which approach is best for him or her.

As a general rule, no one does well with refined sugar. Too much sugar is probably the one major factor that contributes to more problems than anything else.  Get too much sugar and it stresses the pancreas. This leads to Diabetes. Every person who treats cancer will tell you that cancer cells love sugar.  When you talk about weight loss, sugar just makes it way, way easier to pack in a ton of empty calories and thus overeat.

Sugar also causes a spike in insulin. (Insulin is a hormone that helps the body to clear sugar out of the system and store it as fat.) When you eat sugar before a workout, it can block the body’s ability to utilize fat as an energy source.

When you eat sugar immediately after exercise, it can minimize the positive hormonal effects of the exercise by blocking testosterone and growth hormone. (Testosterone is a hormone present in both men and women that builds muscle. Growth hormone has a similar task in the body.) When you exercise intensely, especially resistance exercise, you get an increase in testosterone and growth hormone. This increase can last for a period of time after you finish your workout. If you eat a sugary drink or smoothie, then this will just kill the positive hormonal response of the exercise with an insulin response to the sugar. Testosterone and growth hormone make things grow; insulin breaks things down; so eating sugar cancels out the spike in testosterone and growth hormone.

How does someone who gets injured stay on track with her goals?  Is this even possible?

Yes, it is possible. In fact, I would say proper exercise—and the key word here is proper—is vital to injury recovery. This is something I specialize in. When people get injured, it is due to preexisting dysfunctions in the body. This comes about in our present society from a lack of proper motion.

Most people spend hours sitting at a computer or driving in their cars. This lack of motion causes the body to atrophy in key areas, and then when the person puts stress on the body, it gets injured. Getting injured is one of the most common reasons why people get knocked out of an exercise program.

Also, most exercise programs do not take this into account and thus do not realign the body properly to allow the person to reduce the likelihood of injury before it even happens.  This is where BASIC Weight Loss Bootcamp (www.basicweightlossbootcamp.com) and our approach are different.

A main component of what we do is teaching each person about their own body and what needs to be done to make it more functional and more aligned and less likely to get injured. A more aligned, functional body not only does not get injured, it can also move faster and much more powerfully than an improperly aligned body can.

I am in the process of producing a series of videos that address what exercises a person should do if they have a back injury or a knee injury or a shoulder injury.  Each video will address a different area of the body and then outline how to progress to a general fitness program once they are pain free.

Your readers can contact me if they are interested in this, and I will put them on my list for pre orders. Email me at guylb@sbcglobal.net.

Tell our readers about your bootcamp.

BASIC Weight Loss Bootcamp: BASIC stands for Body Alignment Strength Intensive Course. It is completely unlike any other “bootcamp” or group exercise class you have ever seen. For one thing, even though it is a group class, everything you do in this class is geared towards assessing your individual needs, so that you are doing the correct actions for your body and metabolic makeup.

The first part of each class is spent reprogramming the body at a very deep level to be more functional and aligned.   Then we introduce a series of what we term natural exercises to challenge your body to move correctly and establish new patterns of movement. Not only do they teach you new movement patterns, but they kick your butt, too, so you are reprogramming your metabolism at the same time.

Each class is different with a different emphasis. After we do the intro exercises and the natural exercises, you will then be challenged with a series of different resistance, cardio and core exercises all put together in a sequence designed to make your body work at its capacity without it breaking.

We push you hard, but we also want you to do things correctly. I always tell my students to train the body; don’t just drain it. That means that if you do 100 lunges, but the form is incorrect, then you would be better off going slower and doing 10 completely correct lunges instead. We do not just run you into the ground. Any monkey can do that to you. You are getting scientific programs, based off of years of research and based in the idea to get your body straight and then strengthen it.

The results we see are phenomenal. Here is an example:  “Best workout class I’ve ever taken. I usually don’t take workout classes because they aren’t as fun and engaging as team sports, but this class is different. I can’t wait to wake up and go to bootcamp 3 times a week. Guy gives you diet info & injury advice. Above and beyond what I thought I was paying for. If that’s not enough, after just two months, I’ve lost 10 lbs, 6.5% body fat, 4 inches off my waist and 2 inches off my thighs. Crazy results, and I love doing it! What more could I ask for?” Monica S.

This is a typical success and not an extreme example. We hold the class in Silver Lake. The address 3327 Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake, CA 90026. Classes are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 AM and 7 AM.

Any last words?  Plugs?

For any of your readers who mention this article we will give them $100 off of the normal monthly rate. (The normal monthly cost is $250.00.)