Today I spoke with personal trainer Gabby Faraone. Gabby is from Paraguay, and she came to K-State to study nutrition and kinesiology. Gabby is involved in many different things, and a fun fact about her is that she writes for the collegian, in the health and wellness section. Read on to learn more about her passion for holistic health, what inspired her to delve into this field, and much more.
SN: “What got you interested in personal training?”
GF: “I started teaching group fitness first, but then I realized that you don’t have the opportunity to engage personally with each person. In personal training, you can really see the change from beginning to end, and see clients progressing toward their goals.”
SN: “What is your favorite part about training clients?”
GF: “The relationship that you build with them. And that you can actually motivate them to realize that they can be stronger or healthier. You can show them it’s not something that is impossible to achieve.”
SN: “What is your major?”
GF: “Kinesiology and nutrition.”
SN: “What are your post-college plans?”
GF: “I want to focus more on plant-based nutrition and go into holistic health. I will apply for a job and if I get one in holistic health, I can go straight into it, and if not hopefully work somewhere and then get a holistic health job. I would like to get into acupuncture too.”
SN: “You also teach group fitness classes. Can you talk about which classes you teach, and how long you have been teaching?”
GF: “I started teaching Total Body Toning and strength-based classes. Last semester was boot camp and Movement as well. This semester I’m teaching movement and total body toning. I started teaching at the end of 2017.”
SN: “Do you prefer groupfit or personal training?”
GF: “I like movement the most because you have people sign up and build a community. Same with personal training, but with more people. You already know who’s going to come, and you build relationships.”
SN: “What similarities and differences between groupfit and personal training are there?”
GF: “Similarities are that you are working with people to achieve health goals, you are allowed to see how much you actually know, you see what the fitness level is of each person which is a challenge. You learn to sympathize with people, show them how to make progress. Differences…you can’t put too much work into just one person, whereas personal training you can focus and personalize what they want.”
SN: “Where are you from, and how did you end up here?”
GF: “Paraguay. I got a scholarship and started with dietetics and then realized that not just diet is important, but the combination between diet and exercise. I am not an athlete, but started to train in high school; just started training with other people and trying new things. I like helping others, so I wanted to apply this to help them. I want to continually learn so I might stay here. Don’t be afraid of trying anything. I had never been to the U.S. before coming here, except a vacation to Orlando to Disney world.”
SN: “What is your major, and what made you decide to pursue it?”
GF: “I always was really passionate about food and cooking. I knew nutrition and wasn’t planning on kinesiology, but because I wanted to learn more about the body and how it actually works I thought, “Why not study both?” A lot of people think they can just work out without worrying about what you eat.
SN: “What is your personal favorite form of movement?”
GF: “flow and locomotion, the way humans used to move in the past that we aren’t using anymore. It looks weird but feels good. Movement is based under teachings of someone else, we didn’t create it. We hang and use hands more, we don’t use heavy weights to work out, we use body weight. The skills that are focused on are locomotion, gymnastics, dance, and coordination. I thought about making workout and nutrition videos but the competition is really great, so you have to be super good at it, but I’m in a class where I do story telling with videos. It takes a lot of time and patience. The editing takes a while. I have my Instagram that is more holistic health so I post recipes or tips to be healthier, as well as workouts. It’s all about consistence. I want to be real with people. A lot of fitness models only show the good and it overwhelms people. That’s why I want to do it; to show people that I’m a college student and I work, and I can still do it so they can too.”
SN: “Have you always been active, even as a kid?”
GF: “I played sports, I was a swimmer, played basketball, but it wasn’t professional just recreational. I also played handball in high school.”
SN: “Can you share a personal story about how being a personal trainer has impacted your own life?”
GF: “In positive ways because you don’t realize that the way you behave and what you do can motivate others and they stop you and tell you that you are their motivation. That’s positive. But it can be negative because you start to do it for others rather than yourself. You don’t even realize it until one day you realize you don’t want to do it anymore.”
SN: “Do you have fitness bucket list?”
GF: “I started running, so I want to commit to train for half marathon, boxing, and maybe a triathlon one day.”
SN: “How has your work in this field impacted your friends and family?”
GF: “When you are working or studying this area people expect you to know everything, so they ask questions and expect you to know what you’re talking about. People contact you and ask for help. It’s cool when you feel you know enough to help them. It’s cool to be able to change their life. I started after going home over winter break I taught my dad how to stretch because he works in an office, so I invited him go for a walk and stretch. He realized there are important things in life like family, money, but he never stopped to think about health. It’s not just about mental improvement. Without health, you can’t enjoy all the things you have. Same with friends. We are in a generation where there is so much going on, it seems like most of the time when you get older, it’s harder to change those habits.”
SN: “Do you have a favorite quote you want to share?”
GF: “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”
