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THE MAXFIT LIFE FIT LIF E

When Nick “Coach” Tumminello stepped onto the concourse at

the Beijing Capital City Airport, trans-planted into the land of the Great Wall, Confucius and Chairman Mao, he was understandably overwhelmed. He’d already glimpsed the city out of the plane window: a sprawling metrop-olis that resembled a dull patchwork quilt, the steel-and-glass spikes of its towering skyscrapers angling up though the ever-present smog. It was a daunt-ing sight for Tumminello, seeing as it was so much larger than his native Bal-timore—the sheer industry and velocity of the great Chinese capital was like the steam rising off a hot bath: You could feel it even before you were immersed in it. Tumminello wasn’t there for sight-seeing, though. He’d been recruited to speak at a prestigious fitness confer-ence, one of only two English-speaking trainers to earn an invite.“It was an honor to get the opportunity,” he says. He’s being humble. Tumminello is one of the most sought-after and innovative train-ers in North America. The son of a body-builder (not his father, though—his mother, Faith, competed on

the ultra-com-petitive Florida bodybuilding circuit), Tummi-nello’s entire life has been focused on fitness. As a boy, he accompanied his mother to the gym and saw the intel-ligent approach that she took to body-building. Where other guys were hurling around big weights with bad form, his mother focused on proper tech-nique and kept up on the latest dispatches from the bodybuilding community to maximize her results. “There’s still a lot of value to it,” he says of those old-school muscle-build-

ing workouts, which he believes

are often overlooked in today’s faddish, workout-of-the-week culture. “That stuff is battle-tested. We get caught up in the science sometimes, falling in love with what’s new just because it’s new.” Tumminello became a student of fit-

ness, devoted to the art of crafting the perfect—and perfectly func-tional—body. As his taxi wended its way through the bustling streets of Beijing, he caught sight of a huge

Our Globe-Trotting Trainer communal garden where citizens of all ages were performing tai chi, martial arts and gymnastics. He was struck by the Chinese people’s love of human movement, flexibility and stability. “In North America, so much of the aesthetics focus on big muscles and big mass,” says Tuminello. “In Asia it’s much more about functionality—building a body that can do many things. An all-pur-pose body, instead of simply strength.” And yet, he says, the Chinese people were keen on learning from him, despite the fact that he is loawai, a for-eigner from the land of muscle-bound hamburger-scarfers. But that’s because Tumminello is a different kind of trainer: He didn’t advocate the typical “get huge” workout. Instead, he offered courses like The Secrets of Joint Mobil-ity (tips for maintaining your range of motion, allowing you to add mass while maintaining mobility) and Joint-Friendly Strength Training, where students learn how to modify their workout, allowing them to work around physical short-comings like knee or elbow pain.

COACH NICK’S TOP THREE PERSONAL-TRAINER MISTAKES

1 Having clients lift weights on a stability ball. “Have you ever heard the phrase ‘You can’t fire a cannon from a canoe’?” says Nick. “Unstable base training isn’t the best choice for optimiz-ing strength, muscle size or performance.”

2 Doing too many damn crunches. “Most peo-ple sit in a crunched, slouchy posture all day at their desks,” says Nick. “Why would I give them 100-plus crunches to encourage the same posture?”

3 Not offering enough personalized programs. “Instructors train their clients according to their own personal bias,” says Nick. “Pilates instruc-tors preach Pilates only; power-lifter trainers preach heavy weights. All those approaches can work, but are they what their clients really need to achieve their desired results?”

COACH NICK’S TOP THREE CLIENT MISTAKES

1 Having a random exercise plan and stringing together workout routines in a haphazard fashion. “It’s crucial to have a specific periodized training plan, which involves repeating certain workouts using the progressive overload principle,” says Nick.

2 Trying to out train a bad diet. “Just because you had a big party night and scarfed down a sumo wrestlers’ por-tion of food, it doesn’t mean you need to punish yourself in the gym the next day,” Nick says. “This is unhealthy and not what’s needed to achieve good health and a good-looking physique.”

3 Ignoring mobility workouts. “Some may call it stretching, but proper mobility training is more dynamic in nature and has a more functional carry-over,” says Nick. “Mobility work allows you to stay mobile and keep your joints healthy as you move them in ways you don’t in the weight room.”

That’s the beauty of Tumminello as a trainer, and of Performance University, his Baltimore-based personal train-ing facility: It caters to the individual. His personal philosophy is to be more client-oriented than system-oriented. A client has to embrace his system, yes, but his system also embraces the par-ticular fitness needs of each client. If you really want to get huge, okay, Tum-minello can help you down that road. If you’re after a leaner, more functional look, he’s got you covered. He has the know-how, is backed by the latest fit-ness science and can give you the body of your dreams—provided that you’re willing to pay the price. That’s why he’s one of the most sought-after trainers on the planet and why people listen when he spreads his knowledge—it’s also why MaxFit has retained Tumminello to write a series of articles (to appear in future issues) that will offer our reader-ship the benefit of his knowledge and experience. But even he admits that every trainer has limits—at some point, it’s up to the individual.

Nick “Coach” Tumminello trav-elled from Baltimore to Beijing to spread the word of fitness and health

Nick’s gym, Performance University, is one of the best in the Mid-Atlantic states.

u

Nick Tumminello spreads his fitness brand around the world—he’s already doing it here at MaxFit

“A trainer can’t do the work for you,” he says. “But if you’re willing to train and sacrifice, a well-educated trainer can give you all the tools you need to succeed.” MF

116 MAXIMUM FITNESS MAY/JUNE 2011 WWW.MAXFITMAG.COM