« How To Build Muscle And Burn Fat With The Deadlift | Home | IFBB Fitness Pro Kristin Gomes Reveals Her Fat Loss Tips »
An Interview With Fitness Model and Personal Trainer Priscilla Tuft
By admin | August 4, 2008
Recently I had the chance to do an interview with my friend, fitness model and personal trainer, Priscilla Tuft.
Priscilla has already accomplished quite a lot in the field of health and fitness. She’s been a top fitness competitor and model.
She’s a certified sports nutritionist, personal trainer and owner of Xclusiv Fitness. And you thought she was just a pretty face.
Oh, and one last thing guys. She’s also a mixed martial artist so be nice.
Gregg: Priscilla, your dedication to a health and fitness lifestyle goes far beyond being in shape for a photo shoot.
How did you get started in fitness personally and what made you decide to pursue it, not only competitively, but starting your own business?
Priscilla: Being an overweight child made me desire to learn as much about fitness as possible. I realized it is a gift and passion to help others.
As a personal trainer and nutritionist my books were so full that I had to open my own place and hire amazing trainers to help me change lives!
Gregg: How long did it take you to get to where you are now, and what would you say to our readers who are already tired and frustrated and just want to finally “get in shape”?
Priscilla: It is always a work in progress each year gets better as my muscles learn how I want them to look. My advice is get nutrition dialed in. It is often the missing factor.
Gregg: One thing I’d like for you to address because I feel it’s a big one with women, is weight training.
Even nowadays, a lot of women shy away from weight training because they don’t want to look like Arnold.
If they train at all, it’s with the tiny pink weights and they never even break a sweat.
You’ve developed a gorgeous, sexy, lean hardbody and you couldn’t have done it without weights.
What do you say to these women to get them to not just train with weights but train hard and make it an important part of their overall program?
Priscilla: For generations women have been perceived as being the weaker sex. But it is simply not true.
Strength and speed are not a monopoly of the male gender. Women and men have the same capability to develop strength and speed.
Relative to fat-free body mass, women have nearly the same strength as men.
If one were to take the same muscle unit from a woman and a man and put it in an identical artificial environment with the same growth media and the same stimulation, the muscles would grow at the same rate.
However, in the body the hormonal and metabolic environment varies between men and women.
Women have smaller muscle fibers and ordinarily have less overall muscle mass. Nevertheless, women are gaining in rate of competitive performance on a par with men in both speed and strength.
There really are no specific gender-oriented strength training programs.
Generally, what works for men also works for women. As mentioned previously, women have a similar biological ability to develop strength as men do, but will not acquire the same muscle mass due to hormonal differences.
Nevertheless, women will derive the same benefits from most exercises that men do.
However, gender differences exist in the response to strength training and there are several biomechanical issues to consider for many movements.
We will examine the hormonal and physiological responses of women to strength training and also biomechanical issues and how they relate to training programs.
Gregg: What advice would you give to someone who’s brand-new to the fight to get and stay in shape and struggling to stick to a proper nutrition and exercise program?
Priscilla: Talk to a professional so you’re on the right program, team up with people who will hold you accountable and encourage you. Find your motivating factors!
I write mine down and stick them in my running shoes.
Gregg: What’s the biggest mistake you made when you started and how did you correct it?
Priscilla: My biggest mistake was listening to the latest “diet buzz” and not researching answers for myself. I spend half my life pouring over medical journals to find answers.
Gregg: What do you think is the most important thing or skill you’ve learned with regard to health and fitness?
Priscilla: As best said by Martin Luther’s wife ” When the heart is in right place, the mind and body will follow.”
Gregg: What are some common pitfalls you feel people can stumble upon and how do you help them avoid these obstacles?
Priscilla: Slipping into old patterns is the biggest pitfall, this is how weight gain happened and was maintained in the first place.
So we write down the sabotaging factors and create a positive plan of action to avoid them. It truly works.
An example is to eat an apple when you want a cookie as opposed to just telling yourself that you won’t eat a cookie.
Gregg: Moving forward and knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently with your own journey, if anything?
Priscilla: I would have spent more time earlier on, developing myself from the inside out. It’s funny, the more I focus my mind on God the more being fit just comes naturally.
Gregg: Do you feel that ongoing feedback and motivational tools would help in maintaining a fitness program? I always encourage my clients to take pictures periodically.
Priscilla: They are important. The most important motivational tool is a positive perspective and surrounding yourself with uplifting and motivated friends.
Gregg: If you were to advise a close friend or family member how to follow in your fitness footsteps, what would you tell them?
Priscilla: Without proper nutrition, muscle has a nasty tendency to develop underneath a layer of fat. Thus leaving you with the “not so shredded” look.
Despite countless hours spent in the gym clanking weights, spinning, stepping, cycling, the beautiful muscle you work so hard for is unable to be seen because of the troublesome layer of fat that surrounds it.
Your body requires that protein, carbohydrates, and fats to be effectively balanced. Too much of on, or too little of another can lead to excessive fat increase or a decrease in lean muscle.
Each individual person has their own delicate balance. This was my drive to become a nutritionist. I am now able to do all of the footwork for my clients.
Proper nutrition is absolutely imperative for anyone who is looking to achieve weight loss, energy gains, muscle gains, or enhanced athletic performance.
If you’ve been weight training for any length of time and are not seeing success, or if you are feeling as if you’ve wasted months or even years of your time in the gym, the key to moving your program forward and seeing success is more than likely your nutrition.
Gregg: The most common excuse I hear from people who don’t eat right or train is that they don’t have the time.
With fitness modeling, competing, and running a successful company, you don’t have a lot of time, either but you get it done.
What’s a typical day for you when it comes to training and nutrition? How are you able to consistently fit them into your busy schedule?
Priscilla: Life is too short NOT to live it to its highest potential! I don’t have any time…I MAKE IT!
This is a typical non photo shoot or event day (this is me in town)
I bring food and eat almost every hour in very small portions.
-
6:00 am Focusing the heart with bible study and prayer. My biggest fitness weapon
-
6:30am Run sprints
-
8-2pm Clients and running XCLUSIV FITNESS in the morning till two at times I’ll work out with them (interrupted by MMA class mid day)
-
2-5pm dance practice, and lift
-
6:00 sit down dinner
-
6:30 organize home and finances office work such as nutrition and work out planning till bed ( many evenings I can be caught out “playing” after this. I love to play as hard as I work!)
- 9pm At times I have dance performances in the evening
Gregg: What do you think are the keys to becoming successful, whether it’s competing or just losing 15 pounds?
Priscilla: I believe a few critical keys for being successful are prayer, unrelenting hard work, contagious passion and prioritizing.
Gregg: What’s one of the things you find most challenging about what you do?
Priscilla: It is most challenging to balance body and spirit when the body is my career.
I do not let my body run my life or control who I am inside.
I try to work out my spirit as much as my body, and place it as a priority above my physical.
A beautiful woman with out a beautiful soul is a very ugly thing!
Gregg: With your business, Xclusiv Fitness, and modeling photo shoots, you have to be in shape.
What advice can you give to people who don’t have some sort of deadline, such as a photo shoot or competition, that they can use as motivation to help keep them on track?
Priscilla: Have the proper plan of action that will be effective and surround yourself with uplifting fitness minded people that support your goals. Always put your spirit first.
Gregg: What are your future plans?
Priscilla: I hope to create a legacy of healthy little fitness kids. I want to continue to open more XCLUSIV FITNESS locations as well as empower more people to be their own personal best.
Check out Priscilla Tuft’s web site at PriscillaTuft.com and her company site XclusivFitness.com
Topics: Fitness Models |