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Quinlin Caltabiano discovered athletics and the satisfaction and camaraderie of competition in high school sports. Shortly after turning 16, earning a varsity position and having a peak in strength and performance in general Quinlin was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Leukemia. Aggressive treatment ensued along with the extensive toll it took on his body.

"I lost a bunch of weight and nearly lost (the battle) a few times. Once I was in remission I never wanted to be that weak again."

Quinlin made a full recovery, bounced back and continued strength training all the while moving to Texas, graduating from Texas Tech and becoming a police officer for the Garland Police Department. He wants to share his story and inspiration with as many people as possible that can take away something positive from it. Check it out and follow him here and on instagram 

Quinlin Caltabiano – Bettering Yourself

Kyle Cavnar is a successful Personal Trainers operating out of our Better Bodies Home Gym, Destination Dallas Texas. We asked Kyle to elaborate on the topic of Personal Trainers and how to hire the one that is right for YOU.

Do you want to avoid hiring the wrong personal trainer and potentially save thousands of dollars and months of frustration? Read this article... I promise it’s worth the 5 minutes.

You’ve decided to invest in yourself and hire a personal trainer that is going to help you achieve these ambitious fitness goals… AWESOME! But, you’re not sure what questions to ask and how to know if someone is indeed a good, great, phenomenal, or HORRIFIC personal trainer and, unfortunately in this industry, you will find all the above. I'm here to help you filter all this down and find the RIGHT trainer for you all while avoiding weeks or even months of wasted time and money.

After 19 years of personal training in many different atmospheres and around many different trainers, I’m here to clear the air once and for all and definitively lay out EXACTLY what you need to watch for when hiring a personal trainer regardless if it’s your first, third, or tenth. After reading this article, you will be able to detect the telltale signs right away that will help deter you from someone who doesn’t care about providing a proper service and will likely be a poor investment and instead land the RIGHT trainer who will help you reach those ambitious goals.

**NOT ALL CERTIFICATIONS ARE THE SAME. Unlike some industries that have strict governing oversight and regulation, personal trainer certifications are handed out way too easily from way too many organizations. There are literally hundreds of ‘PT cert’ companies so you MUST find out which one they have. Need help figuring out if their cert is ranked among the top in the field or if it is nonsense? Email me and I will help. If you can find a trainer that invested into a Bachelor’s Degree or even Master Degree in a related field, they will likely have a great understanding of human anatomy, bio-mechanics, exercise physiology, and program development. Some may argue this, but all the best trainers I’ve known have years if not decades of education and have invested $10’s if not $100’s of thousands into furthering their knowledge. A trainer who spent three days getting certified cannot compete with that, it’s apples and oranges.

You should be able to get a hold of your trainer on a regular basis. A personal trainer is a large financial investment and this single person is supposed to help you potentially change your entire life physically, mentally, psychologically, and even your daily habits that may be exactly what’s holding you back. IF YOU CANNOT GET A HOLD OF YOUR TRAINER, FIRE THEM. Even the busiest, most successful trainer will schedule time into their calendar to get back to clients in a timely manner. This goes for in person and online training; at times, there may legitimately be something that comes up and there could be a delay, but unless that trainer is in the ER and unable to reply, you should be hearing from them. There’s no such thing as a trainer who’s so busy they put their own clients on the back burner. Remember; YOU HIRED THEM. They WORK for you! I’ve seen many clients of trainers play the victim card in this situation; “He’s just so busy, I’ll just try again next week.” I promise you, 99.99% of the time, a trainer can get back to you on time. It’s their job. 

There’s no job in the world where a good boss would allow a 24 – 48 hour delayed reply and not address it. You are the trainer’s boss…you need to address it.

**I would say this is equally as important as education; Our jobs as trainers is a unique one; we’re a Jack / Jill of all trades. Those of us who truly love our job will ooze passion and positive energy with zero effort. We simply love what we do and who we do it with, and hopefully where we do it at. If you have an appointment with your trainer or an online check in chat, you should be excited to chat with them and feed off their energy. Some trainers are of course more stern in their approach and vocabulary, but it’s because the good ones’ care and they WANT YOU TO SUCCEED. It’s literally why we go into this business; We want to make a decent living helping people achieve their health and fitness goals and gain your referrals to continue expanding our business and helping more people. 

No one gets their trainer certification so they can mope around the gym and look like they don’t give a shit. ***If you see this or if this is YOUR trainer, they’ve lost their passion, their drive to do well, and likely have also lost interest in your own goals.

 This is so toxic and such an uncomfortable situation for many clients, but YOU MUST WALK AWAY if you find yourself in this scenario. I don’t care if the trainer is a close friend, your nephew, or your own significant other; if the trainer isn’t delivering the service they promised, fix it and / or get your money back and find a new trainer.

**Here in Dallas, we have what’s called D Magazine and once a year they feature all the top businesses, restaurants, doctors / surgeons, and pretty much any other type of establishment or service you could think of. It’s an impressive list of professionals featured in an impressive magazine and those who make it on this list boast about it online and at their place of work. It all comes down to this; A great place of business is going to be BUSY. That’s why they’re ranked the best! They have clients, booked schedules, maybe even a waiting list. It might even be hard to get an appointment scheduled if you wait until it’s too late. 

A PERSONAL TRAINER IS NO DIFFERENT; If they’re busy, that’s a great sign!

 That means people like them and keep coming back. It means they’re providing a service that clients enjoy and are bringing new friends along. It’s literally one of the easiest ways to tell whether someone is a good trainer or not. Now, there are many great trainers who don’t have booked schedules simply because they don’t want to or have other obligations. That’s totally okay. But for millions of people across the world in a typical gym setting, you probably notice that only 1-4 trainers are ‘killing it’ with their business and always seem to be working. It’s not by mistake and it’s not by chance. Those trainers WORKED HARD to get to that level of demand. You might want to talk to them about training.

 As a trainer, I take my job VERY seriously and treat my service as if my place of work was the White House, a surgery center, or freaking NASA. I must be ON MY GAME when I am in the gym and so does your trainer. As I mentioned in a previous statement, your trainer should be oozing positive energy and excitement for you and your goals. They are the driving force behind what will finally get you past those barriers you can’t seem to break down on your own or simply need that last push to cross the finish line. Let me be very clear about this; 

If your trainer gossips, loves spreading rumors, flirts with other gym members during your session, has no game plan, and, my BIGGEST pet peeve, never gets off their PHONE, THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR GOALS. FIRE THEM IMMEDIATELY!

 Let’s be honest, being a personal trainer is an awesome job; we go to work in fitness clothing, we do what we love, we’re compensated fairly, and our client’s lives alter for the better…it’s literally a win-win-win situation. If any trainer does not realize the opportunity they have right in front of them, it’s best they just throw in the towel and find a job that maybe doesn’t require them to motivate others.

Let’s say your trainer checks off all these boxes; they have the education, the energy, the focus, the drive, and they’re in demand. That’s awesome! But I’ll tell you this; y'all must be able to ‘click'. Maybe that means as friends, maybe it means something in a more professional sense. But y'all should be able to get along. At least for the hour you’re training. I don’t mean you and your trainer need to go grab lunch every Friday and watch the football game each weekend. But just like we pick our friends because we get along with certain people, I’ve always found it much easier to do business with people that share the same sense of humor and attitude. Naturally, I love enjoying a few good laughs or discussing my client’s newest real estate investment. A trainer should enjoy my time with my clients and a client should be able to click with their trainer as well; many times, a great personal trainer becomes a close friend. I’ve had many clients over the years become long lasting friends and that in return has yielded many referrals which I converted to clients. It’s the cycle of a great business!

 to avoid when hiring a personal trainer.

Not good at replying to calls, texts, emails.

Always on their phone when they’re supposed to be training

Loves talking about themselves excessively when they should be focused ON YOU.

Focuses on the ‘cute’ person in the gym or their friends instead of you the client.

Can’t seem to keep their private life private and want to tell you everything. Watch out for this one; If your trainer gets too comfortable as y'all become friends, don’t let them loose their professionalism. They’re still there to kick your butt. If you ask how are things outside of work, it’s understandable to chat about it. But if they continue to bring up unrelated topics and personal matters, ask them to stop.

Doesn’t keep track of payments, progress, or have any rhyme or reason behind their methods. When you ask why you’re performing certain exercises, they have no explanation or understanding of basic bio-mechanics and anatomy.

Doesn’t seem to care about your goals or can’t remember them.

The trainer is disrespectful and / or uncomfortable to be around.

The trainer is clearly not putting your goals first and is just trying to meet a sales quota. DON’T FALL FOR THIS; NEVER make personal training a financial burden upon yourself because some trainer or their manager pressured you to buy 5 sessions a week for 6 months with them. NEVER ALLOW THIS. ALWAYS STAY WITHIN A BUDGET AND KNOW WHAT THAT BUDGET IS BEFORE DISCUSSING NUMBERS. Unfortunately, many big box gyms and many selfish trainers focus firstly on money, then on clients; they really don’t care if you achieve your goals as long as you keep paying. 

A GOOD TRAINER WILL HELP YOU FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU’RE ABLE TO COMFORTABLY INVEST. This is so important, if you take anything away from this article, please remember this one.

Share your thoughts and experiences with us! What do you look for when hiring a trainer? Find me on IG @kyle_cavnar and let me know!

What To Think About When Hiring A Personal Trainer

More in Events

Fitnessfestivalen in Stockholm, Sweden, is Northern Europe’s Biggest Fitness and Training Expo. It was started in 2004 and still carries on each year hosting seminars, fitness competitions, workout classes, fitness/training/inspirational profiles, and a huge expo where companies within the industry gets the opportunity to meet each other and the community face to face.

Better Bodies has always been a part of the event in one way or the other and this year we focused on promoting our upcoming amateur Fitness Competition Better Bodies Challenge. We also invited our ambassadors, consumers, and community to come hang out in our booth.

Check out the recap video from the event.

Fitnessfestivalen 2019

December 5, 2019 we invited our Swedish Ambassadors for a Meet-Up at the Better Bodies offices in Stockholm. The goal was to hang out, get to know each other, give a sneak peek of upcoming products as well as welcome feedback from our ambassadors.

The number of people we were able to host was limited, and we full house and a great evening with lots of fun. Check out the recap video and stay tuned for the next Meet-Up!

Ambassador Meet-Up Stockholm December 5, 2019

More in Ambassadors

is a Better Bodies ambassador and a previous world champion in Bikini Fitness. She earned a Pro Card in the division and now runs her own coaching company, Lewel. Her goal with the company is to help strengthen others, mentally and physically.

When following Sandra one thing that stands out is her extremely positive mindset. We catch up with Sandra to see if she has any tips for others on how she does it.

I have always been a happy girl, unless I'm on my period or is few weeks out from competition, then I may cry. But other than that, I’m extraordinary happy. So happy that I actually got expelled from school once. They thought I was high, but no, I was just me, being happy.

I remember when I first realized I needed to improve my mindset. It was on my way to the first competition. I have never had high beliefs about myself or ever thought I was any better than anyone else. I also did not know if competing was something for me since I had those thoughts and did not think anything special about myself. I had to give myself a pep-talk sayin to myself that "OK, you can complete this competition and just go on with your life, or you can do this and start talking positive to yourself, believe in yourself and tell yourself that you are good". So, I chose to start believing in myself, and that was when I started developing a "champion mindset".

Being aware your own thoughts and how you speak to yourself is maybe the hardest and most important lesson to learn during life. Over 80% of what you tell yourself during a day is typically "said" with a negative tone. What you say to yourself is affecting your everyday life, your body and how you integrate with the world around you. And on top of this, the negative things you say to yourself is also most likely bullshit. Life is too short to be negative. And being the opposite is so easy.

SMILE, smile, smile smile. Open your eyes. Look at people around you, meet them with a happy face and you will most likely get one back. Instead of spiraling down in the negative pattern we already are familiar with, try to learn something from the situation and find at last one positive thing. Life is better, funnier and more enjoyable with a positive mindset. Accept things as they happen, care more, smile, and train your mind to be positive.

Sandra Jokic – A Positive Mindset

More in Training

 This is the most common mindset when it comes to answering the question of how to grow any muscle group. For the most part lifting heavy is the way to grow however it does not out-weigh the importance of proper engagement and more or less "feeling" the muscle working properly.

"Humble yourself. lighten the weight and really give it your all."

 This is Chase's method and once a proper mind muscle connection is made the weight can be added and you can "lift heavy".

These are some of Chase's staple lifts and some of his favorite techniques for warming up, flexibility and training both quadriceps and hamstrings.

Quads and Hams – Complete Leg Development with Chase Bergner

More in Products

It's Holiday season and many people are looking for the perfect gift for their friends and family. We asked some of our ambassadors what Better Bodies items they would recommend.

Those following me knows I often wear a hat, and the 

 might be my "all time favorite". It is so nice in camo and the fit is perfect. I just ordered a second one as I've worn it out.

 is bigger and fits perfect both on- and offseason. This T-Shirt is my first choice for leg workouts or for everyday use with jeans.

 is a thick and oversized hoodie perfect for fall and winter. I often wear it to and from the gym. I also keep it on when I warm up for my workout.

 are new in the assortment. They are shorter and the material is very lightweight. They are exactly what I prefer for my workouts and they match great with a deep cut tank.

 because of the unique material. It is very soft and stretchy. The tank itself also displays the back muscles in a great way so I often pick this for my back workouts.

 because it is longer and not cropped. It is a very comfortable long sleeve and the material is really nice.

 is the most comfy shirt I have worn. It is so soft and nice and extremely good looking. It has a clean look that fits even for everyday use and I love that.

 keeps everything in place while being extremely cute and flattering.

 have a minimalistic design but they look and fit great and they match everything.

 because the material is just awesome. They are soft, stretchy and fits great. Wearing these feels like wearing nothing at all.

 are the best shorts for any occasion whether you are hitting a heavy workout with weights or a sweaty HIIT session. They are simply awesome!

 is an extremely comfortable tank with attitude. It fits great and works for any occasion.

 is oversized, comfortable, and good looking. I absolutely love the fit of this hoodie.

 is a favorite that keeps you warm, transports moisture and fits great. Wearing this feels like wearing no shirt at all.

My Holiday Favorites

"I don't want to be put into a category. I want to be able to compete on stage or in CrossFit, or even basketball and sports involving running."

BreeAnna Lucero takes us through a diverse group of dynamic and some typical exercises with her own twist on them, that give her the conditioning and strength adaptations that keep her strong, shapely and ready for anything she wants to do athletically.

 and here at Betterbodies.com for constant updates.

Diversely Built Legs with BreeAnna Lucero

) has a long background in the fitness industry. Here she gives us an insight to which factors that are the most important if your goal is to lose fat.

Cardio is shortening for cardiovascular exercises, which is the popular name for aerobic exercises. Aerobic exercises are the ones that use oxygen as fuel and are normally performed for a longer period of time. (Example: jogging, brisk walk, cross-trainer etc. )

Cardiovascular activities have great benefits for our health and well-being, it can help:

This is to name just some of the benefits of cardiovascular activities!

One benefit that I left out from the list above is THE ONE, I am very excited to talk about today which is FAT LOSS!

I left this out of the list, because despite popular belief, cardio is NOT your best tool when it comes to fat loss. 

Before we move forward with this, we need to first understand how fat loss actually happens.

Fat loss happens when there is a calorie deficit, which means there are more calories going out than going in, or also known as CICO: Calories in vs Calories Out (you can read more about calorie deficit 

There are a couple ways to create a calorie deficit:

2- Increase the amount of calories you burn (by moving more)

One thing that it is important to keep in mind is that your calorie deficit number is not a static number. It can change over time and even from one day to the next. Ultimately, if you are not losing weight it means that you are NOT in a calorie deficit (you can read more about this 

We often see people relying on cardio only for fat loss, before first having a hard look at their diets to see how much they are actually eating. This is a huge problem because, according to 

 most people tend to underestimate how much they eat by nearly 50%, and the same is true for overestimating how many calories they burn when exercising.

Just to put into perspective why this is so crucial, let’s put some calories side by side here:

3 slices of pizza has in average 1100 Kcals 

This means that after eating three slices of pizza to break even you would have to run for nearly 3 hours to burn those calories.

I don’t like to use exercising as ‘’punishment’’ for what you have ‘’cheated’’ on your diet with, so I am just using this as an example for you guys to see that the 1 hour you spend in the gym might not justify the 3 large pizzas and 5 chocolate bars you scoff on the weekend.

Of course cardio can be a great tool to increase energy expenditure (calories out), but the first priority should be to sort out your diet so you are not using cardio as ‘’punishment’’ for the food you have overindulged.

Nathalia Melo – Is Cardio Needed For Fat Loss?

Blaze Bowen has learned to take inspiration from his surroundings like top competitors such as Phil Heath and Roelly Winklaar and motivate himself from his own experiences and the standard and physique he strives to build.

"I think as an individual, you need to be your own motivation. Everyone has what motivates and pushes themselves.

You cant take what motivates someone else and have it apply the same to you. Stay out of your comfort zone. Improve every single day. Be the best version of yourself.

We follow up with Blaze still 6 weeks out of the NPC Nationals in Miami going through his methodology behind his typical arm training. From heavy weight and low reps to extremely high repetitions and intense muscle connection, Blaze explains it all.

Blaze Bowen Arm Training – Be Your Own Motivation

Misty Statum grew up in a small town in Texas and has since middle school had an affinity and talent for athletics. Misty has always combined passion and purpose and has consistently turned her love for physicality in the gym or the field into opportunities. Since graduating from the University of Houston with a kinesiology degree, she has maintained a hungry and creative entrepreneurial mindset from owning and operating her own personal training business and studio, to turning her marketing and graphic design creative outlet into her main business.

"Having my own training studio, I made my own logo and marketing material to promote my own training business. I fell in love with the marketing side and realized it was what I wanted to do full time."

Her athletic passions have lead her to prepare for her first figure competition at this years Texas State Championships which happens to be a qualifier for the NPC Nationals where pro cards are offered to all class winners. Misty's prep was not void of obstacle and difficulty since the NPC Texas State Championships has a history of being one of the most competitive national qualifiers.

"You just always have to be your best. No one is going to take it easy. You just always have to kill what you do and never slack."

Strong Athletic Body – Misty Statum, Texas State Figure Champion

Nicci Hernestig and Mathias Guss ends their Marbella trip with a visit at Reebok Hybrid Gym and summarizes their trip.

Better Bodies family friend Stefan lives part time in Marbella and he picked up Nicci and Mathias to take them to Reebok Hybrid Gym. They were both impressed with what they saw as they got there. Rafael Motloch is the gym owner and he took the guests on a tour through the facilities.

Mathias and Nicci chose to do a complete body workout to get to utilize as much as possible of the gym. They got a good workout in and and ended it with a smoothie.

The highlight of the trip was Mikes gym, especially since we got to do something we've never done before (obstacle course). What we leave with overall is the importance of mixing training with pleasure to live to the max.