FITNESS My body
Gary Frantz Massage practitioner
QWHEN DID YOU START
WORKING OUT? I first started working out when I was seven years old, doing gymnastics. I was born in Scotland, but lived in the US for most of my life. I began playing water polo internationally at high school when I was 15, and played for 14 years. I was a member of the USAF (US Air Force) track team at the age of 18, and ran the 800 metres. I was with the USAF for two and a half years before being discharged in 1984 because of my sexuality. Alongside disciplines such as kick-boxing and various other martial arts, I have been a massage practitioner for the past 25 years.
QWHAT’S YOUR TYPICAL GYM ROUTINE?
I find that sticking to a routine can be helpful for people who are just starting out, but if you’ve been working out for a while, you need to break routines. For me, exercise should be more like play than work. Coming from a background where I have played so many sports, I strongly believe that it’s important to do exercise that you enjoy, that feels like fun and not a chore.
Lots of people go to the gym to change the way they look and they often forget that it’s more important to look at how your body moves and performs. I don’t have a typical routine. I work out every day, but what I do can vary greatly. I usually use Jubilee Hall in Covent Garden. I think that counting weights can actually limit your development. Sometimes I might exercise for three hours, or sometimes for just 30 minutes. I call it playtime. I dance and do martial arts, Thai stick-fighting and yoga. I dance: modern, ballet and jazz styles – which train so many different muscles. I think your strength comes from how you use your body, not how big you are. As you get older, your balance goes long before your strength does – you don’t become weaker because of a lack of strength but a lack of coordination.
66
WWW.OUTMAG.CO.UK
GET A BODY LIKE GARY
1.Find a sport you love doing. Don’t be afraid to try out something that you’ve always secretly wanted to try. You may well find that you love it and look forward to your activity sessions.
2. Try to listen to your body, and work on those areas you feel need improvement, whether that be flexibility and coordination or endurance. If you simply “want a bigger chest”, you may be ignoring your body’s more general needs.
QWHAT SORT OF WEIGHTS DO YOU LIFT NOW?
The older I’ve become, the more I’ve found it beneficial to lift my own body weight – through doing handstands and push-ups. I sometimes do handstand push- ups; and pull-ups and chin-ups are also great. You can do them in lots of different ways and positions. You can do a pull up where your body is horizontal and parallel to the ground, or a pike push up, where your body is bent at the hips 90 degrees.
Listen to what your body is telling you. I’m also 6’3”, so most of the gym machines don’t actually fit a body like mine. They are built for people between 5’7” and 6’.
QDO YOU TAKE ANY
NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS? I don’t take any supplement or meal replacement. I always watch what I eat, and I eat to heal myself. I think I
eat a healthy diet – eating and exercising as necessary to achieve optimum health.
QDO YOU HAVE ANY PERSONAL WORKOUT
ADVICE OR TIPS? The best tip I can give is never allow your workout to become work. Turn it into your personal playtime. Make it fun and allow yourself to be a kid again. Concentrate on getting into shape, not just looking in shape. Find a sport you love doing. When you look at different athletes, such as swimmers or runners, they’ve got slightly different bodies to your average gym-goer. Yes, go to the gym, but sometimes finding a sport you love, and doing it regularly, can yield much better results in terms of overall health and fitness. Trainers can be utilised, but more as a coach than a motivator. If you find an activity you love, you will have the motivation to keep doing it.
3.Don’t overlook simple exercises that force you to support your own body weight – you don’t necessarily have to lift height dumb bells and bar bells to develop greater muscle tone and strength.
PHOTO © MARIUS ELS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68