What does it take to sculpt a killer physique? Discipline, motivation and an eye-of-the-tiger focus. But that’s just the beginning. We talk to five of the Magic City’s fitness influencers—from the model turned yogi to a former professional soccer player—about how a sharp mind begets a hot body.

Aleska Genesis @aleskagenesis, Model and fixture at 5th Street Gym, a boxing gym in Miami Beach and the site of a historic run of championship fighters who trained there from the early 1950s until today

Chelcie May

@chelciemay, Yogi and certified health and wellness coach

Tell us about your fitness history. As a model, fitness has always played a huge role in my life and career. Over the years I’ve developed a love for learning and sharing my knowledge about fitness and nutrition. That passion drove me to get certified as a health coach with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. After graduating, I’ve been growing my health coaching community and clientele, and helping people make a real difference in their own health and wellness journey. What are you doing that everyone else should be doing, workoutwise? Diversifying your workouts and listening to your body! You’re not going to wake up feeling the same every day, so it’s important to listen to your body’s needs, whether that’s a boxing class, a long walk or a yoga class. I truly believe that you get the best results when you mix up your workouts. It also helps keep me motivated and things interesting! What is the most underrated workout? Jumping rope. Sometimes when I don’t have a lot of time to work out, I’ll put on some fun music and try to jump to four or five songs. It’s so good for leaning and toning up your whole body, and it’s a form of lymphatic drainage as well. What’s your approach to nutrition? I specialize in gut health with my practice. Many illnesses start within the gut, and that’s why I truly believe in the saying ‘Let food be thy medicine.’ Nutrition is super important for your overall well-being, functioning and health. The food you put in your body is fuel, so make sure that fuel is premium. What inspires you about Miami? I love the beautiful weather and being so close to the ocean. I am originally from Canada, so being able to go to the beach all year round and be active outdoors is a true blessing. I also love that I can easily connect with people that share my passion for health and wellness.

Rachel Robinson

@rachel_fitness, Badass trainer with a cult following on Instagram

Tell us about your fitness history. I have always considered myself an athlete for as long as I can remember. I knew very early in my life I would have a career in fitness. I’ve done everything from starring in MTV’s The Challenge to private training to group fitness to now having my own brand and online training company, Rachel Fitness. How did you pivot during the pandemic? Quickly, and very naturally. I didn’t know at the time what was going to happen, but I knew I wanted to show up for my people and release workouts for those who needed to move their body. There was an incredible energy every morning, and the new way of connecting felt so right. Rachel Fitness is a fitness and lifestyle brand that I am so excited to continue growing and nurturing to greater levels. Keep watching and supporting. What is the secret to your success? I always taught with in-tune energy. Even through Live I promote an energy that I know is incredibly motivating. My workouts are constantly changing whether it’s through equipment or moves, and I rotate cardio and strength to really keep your body both guessing and engaged. What’s your approach to nutrition? I am half French, so I have a very romantic relationship with food in that I believe in enjoying it all; moderation and portion control are my foundation with my meals. I believe nutrition works differently for everyone, and it’s up to you to know your body and learn to love what you eat! How do you rest and recharge? Family is my everything; they are where all my time is spent outside of work. They are all my fun time, my quality time, my party time. They are incorporated into everything I do, and everything we do is for them.

Rodrigo Garduño

@ro54d, Former professional soccer player-turned 54D fitness founder

Tell us about your fitness history. I started my life in amateur soccer at age 12, and by the time I turned 17 I had debuted in professional soccer. After training every day for 20 years, my soccer career came to an end when I was 29. At that moment, several companies started contacting me to inspire their employees and motivate them to exploit all their potential through sports. All of a sudden I was giving keynote speeches at conferences on personal development in 34 countries around the world. I urged people to leave their comfort zones and aspire to more in life, to stop being spectators and become major players. During this time, I realized that I could help people not only by urging them to lead a healthy, active life but also by offering them a training alternative to big-box gyms that were not delivering the results that people looked for. What did you learn from your past career as a professional athlete? That discipline is the most important component when looking to accomplish anything in life, and with that in mind, our core curriculum sets people on a path for success and happiness. So back to the ineffectiveness of big-box gyms. Is that why you decided to create 54D? After four successful years of lectures, in 2012 I decided it was time to enter the fitness industry in Mexico by creating a 54-day training program that works mind and body to achieve maximum performance, the first program in the country to use high-intensity training discipline. Walk us through the program. What does it entail? 54D is a system based in discipline, willpower, character, passion, heart that not only helps on a physical level but also boosts self-esteem. Our regular studio workouts were created to transform fitness, with a results-driven nine-week program. When we say, ‘We are not a gym,’ we really mean it. Fitness is about discipline, and we demand nothing less than 100% devotion from every person who comes through our doors and signs on the dotted line. If we are showing up every day and giving it our all, we expect you to do the same. Program registrants who have more than three ‘unjustified’ absences are issued a full refund and ejected. What’s your approach to nutrition? Our nutrition plans promote clean eating and zero alcohol consumption for the duration of the nine-week program, which includes six daily workouts per week. What happens after 54D? With the start of the pandemic, we started providing free online classes on IG Live, as well as other types of content on nutrition and recovery. We understood that there was a need for people who follow our brand for online content. That’s when we started developing 54D ON (54d-on.com), a comprehensive online program that has reached more than 10,000 subscribers and is now starting its fifth generation. We divided our online members into smaller groups led by one of our coaches dedicated full time to them, offering full guidance. No one else in the industry is doing this, and we are really proud of how people responded to a new way of being part of the 54D family. How do you rest and recharge? I am not the type of person who likes to sit on the couch and binge-watch a show for hours, so I always find something to do even when I’m not training other people. One day I could be listening to a podcast on fitness and motivation, and the next I could be focused on spending quality time with my wife and two daughters. I am a very competitive person, and I pride myself on doing anything to win.

Alvin Davie

@tapoutfitnessmia, Former boxer and training manager at Tapout Fitness Miami

Tell us about your fitness history. As a child in St. Louis, I played any sport I could be a part of. I became one of the best football players in the state and secured offers to several Division I colleges for football. I majored in health and physical education in college and had a pretty good football career. Soon after football was over, I picked up boxing and quickly became one of the top 10 amateur heavyweights in the country, winning multiple Golden Gloves tournaments. That led to a pro boxing career and to me opening the first tech-based boxing gym in the world here in Miami (The Box). Now we’re here with this amazing Tapout Fitness project. Walk us through the Tapout Fitness method. We incorporate boxing/kickboxing and strength or high-intensity moves. It’s one of the best workouts in the world because we take the training methods of actual fighters and put them into a fitness-based class. So you get to train like the most-in-shape athletes in the world (fighters) but you don’t get hit in the face! Tell us about the different types of classes at Tapout Fitness. The three classes that we are introducing are Tapout Sweat, which includes boxing and HITT on the amazing equipment we have in the studio; Tapout Strong is the class for the person who wants to build added muscle and strength. Then there’s Tapout Strike; this is all striking and a few bodyweight movements. How do you recover and recharge after an intense workout? My go-to is electrolytes. I love watermelon juice, coco water or sugarcane juice as a pick-me-up. Motivation song? ‘Heart of a Champion’ by Nelly. Is it true that boxing is the ultimate stress reliever? Definitely. The first law of thermodynamics states that ‘Energy is neither created nor destroyed,’ it’s just transferred, and when you punch that bag, all that bad energy leaves your body and transfers right into that bag!

Jennifer Nicole Lee

@JenniferNicoleLee, Queen of wellness and master trainer

Tell us about your fitness history. Wow! How long do you have? My real fitness history began from my own personal frustrations of emotional eating, and going up and down on the scale my entire childhood into my teenage years. It wasn’t until I became a mother that I finally said enough is enough. In 2003 I began my transformation. Now fast-forward to today, 17 years later, 17 books later, 93 magazine covers later and countless lives transformed—here I am! I love what I do, as witnessing women reclaim and unleash their VIP power is my life’s calling! How did you pivot during the pandemic? Funny enough, I really didn’t have to change much. I’ve been teaching online for the past six years. What are you doing that everyone else should be doing, workoutwise? It’s been proven year after year that high-intensity interval training will give you more results and a longer afterburn than stationary cardio. So I weave strength training into the cardio sessions, with back-to-back 30-second intervals. You get the best of both worlds! Most underrated exercise move? Definitely the burpee. But I infuse this tried-and-true exercise with different added-on moves such as high kicks, plyometric jumps and squats. It keeps it interesting and it keeps it fun. A strong mind begets a strong body: true or false? Extremely true. True wellness starts in the mind and then it flows to the body. For example, with my own weight loss transformation, I had to get control of my mindset. I had to get rid of the all-or-nothing mentality and also wanting to see results overnight. You can’t microwave success. What’s your approach to nutrition? We must keep it simple! I don’t encourage my clients to count calories or count macros. Fitness should be fun and not stressful. Eat a slow-burning complex carb, a lean source of protein and tons of green vegetables and detox water. Stay away from alcohol. And no carbs after 4pm. How do you rest and recharge? Recovery is the new workout. It’s true that what you do outside of working out is just as important as when you are working out. I highly suggest foam rolling, Epsom salt baths and deep-pressure athletic massages for proper sports recovery.

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