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My Body

Brett Hoebel on Capoeira and Garbage Fitness Products

(We heard about Brett Hoebel through L.A. super trainer Elizabeth Ordway who gave Hoebel top marks. Hoebel made his name at Equinox in New York with urbanmotion, a class that combined capoeira, kickboxing, and house music. He's since gone out on his own, and attracted a crowd of celebrity clients including Karolina Kurkova, America Ferrera, and Veronica Webb.)

I've always been an athlete. I was just naturally good at sports. I could throw a ball straight before any of the other kids. My mom put me in gymnastics when I was two. I always loved to dance. There's just been that movement in me. But I had a wheat allergy and started to gain weight in fifth grade. We moved from New Jersey to California, and I had no friends. But we walked past this karate dojo everyday. There, they don't care how heavy you are, how skinny you are. You come in, you're respectful of the rules, you'll be rewarded. I really excelled. I went to all the classes, and got into sparring. That got me hooked and gave me a lot of self-confidence.  

In 9th grade I decided I didn't want to be the last kid to ever go out on date, and I also tried out for varsity teams, so my training tripled. I weighed in 150 for football, then wrestled sophomore year at 120. I was in ridiculous shape. That changed my life in a good way. The secret is inner strength. You can come up with crazy exercises, but if you want to change your body, your'e going to have to change your life. I call it chatter, that voice in your head that's like "I'm too tired, I want to quit." You have to turn that off. That kind of mental strength, knowing you're not going to quit, that's what does it.

When I moved to New York after I graduated from college, I was a lab tech applying to medical school. I couldn't afford a gym membership. I basically was like, if I apply to be an instructor, I'll get a membership. I got hired as a part-time boxing instructor at NYSC. Then I got my personal training certification. The one thing about teaching group fitness, there's not that much of a science to it. You're a glorified cheerleader, and you're either born with that talent or not. I don't know if you can teach that. With personal training, there's a real science to it. But personality matters too. Just getting people to work out hard. Trainers who have a fun personality can get better results than guys who have PhDs but are lame. 

I deferred medical school and was trying to decide what to do, and my dad said, "Find something that you love to do. It will never feel like work. And either the money won't matter, or it will come to you because you love what you do." So that's when I went full-time with fitness, about ten years ago.

Doutzen Kroes and Karolina Kurkova were two really fun people. And they were both exceptional athletes. Karolina from doing gymnastics, and Doutzen was basically a professional speed skater. They were very holistic. They were into cross-training and clean eating. I didn't have to tell them a lot of this stuff, they already knew it. 

I do capoeira. You get cardio, core, strength, stretch, all in one. There's a lot that makes it part of your life, not just a workout. The instruments, the group — you're learning the language, you go to Brazil. It's a commitment. I train as a student at Arte Capoeira Center at 28th and 5th. It's an amazing place. A lot of places don't cater to beginners, but Arte Capoeira does. 

Sleep is the toughest thing for me to manage. I don't drink caffeine. If you don't have it, there's no crutch. If you can't jack yourself up on Starbucks, you won't want to make the mistake of not getting enough sleep more than once or twice. A rule of thumb for me: Be in bed by 11 P.M. It's hard, but it's too painful otherwise. I've had injuries, and the one thing I notice is I can go on six hours of sleep mentally, but my knees, my injuries, they're sore. Anti-inflammatories and weight-loss hormones are produced during deep sleep. So you really have to sleep if you want to feel good. That keeps me in check. 

Once in a while, I'll do a meal delivery company. It keeps everything organized. I've also been very particular making sure my office is is stocked up with healthy snacks. Most people know oatmeal is good and pizza's not, but the snacks in between is when you run into trouble. So I'm all stocked up with nuts, hard boiled eggs, shakes, and superfoods. 

My new program, RevAbs, is set to launch around the New Year. It's a real personal training system at home: Eight DVDs, and a 90 day program. I think there's a lot of crock out there in the industry that's being sold. There are few pieces of equipment that work. The ab dolly was one of the only ones. 99% of stuff out there is garbage. I'm not a big fan of the two hour workouts. My programs are 30 to 45 minutes. Sprints work. Who has two hours? Madonna has two hours. I don't have two hours.