About

After decades of investigation, I uncovered the key reasons why we have so many problems improving our health, fitness and performance.

And I created a way to remedy these problems.

My Fusion Fitness and Performance™ system featuring Core-to-Strength™ Training is a scientific, no-nonsense, back-to-basics approach that works.

If you’d like some details on how I put my system together, and why I feel it’s the best way to get results, this section is for you. — Fernando

The Brain

Neurological Fitness - The brain is the body's control center. Through synchronized electrical impulses the brain tells your body what, when and how to do things. An "out-of-shape" brain can experience short-circuits and send out weak, out-of sync, distorted messages to your muscles, organs and body systems. This fact was understood by the ancient Greek and Roman physicians hence the adage "Sound Mind, Sound Body."

Today’s scientific research has proven that the brain-to-muscle connection must be trained and strengthened in order to experience vibrant health and fitness. For this reason, neurological fitness is the cornerstone of our programming. 

And this training involves more than doing mere crossword puzzles. Research shows this requires complex total-body movement patterns to be successful. The result is "smart" muscle and a strong brain-to-muscle connection that always activates the RIGHT set of muscles during ANY exercise or activity.

Better Activation = Better Workouts = Better RESULTS!

Yes, a strong, healthy and fit brain does help create a strong, healthy and fit body. Hence, the key concept we promote is "No Brain, No Gain."   

The Body

To understand how to properly train the body we need to understand the basics of human body function. The structural make up of the human body is comprised of over 620 muscles, 206 bones, a brain and nervous system with billions of nerve endings and vast webbing of connective tissue called fascia, which connects and holds it all together.

The muscular system can be divided into two main categories:

1. Large “moving” muscles

2. Small structural “support” muscles

The large moving muscles are the typical ones most people know: chest, lats, shoulders, quads, hamstrings, etc. and are few in number. (10% of muscles)

The small structural support muscles are the ones not commonly seen because they lie underneath the large muscles. These muscles like: rotator cuff muscles, rhomboids, intercostals, psoas, transverse abdominus, internal obliques, paraspinals, etc. number in the hundreds. (90% of muscles!)

Add to this the neurologically-sensitive fascia which forms vast muscular networks throughout your body and you have some serious head-to-toe communication and movement support. One such network is the spiral line pictured here. 

The science teaches us that the human body functions as an highly-intelligent movement-interpretation machine that thrives on exploring total-body movements in a variety of positions, angles, levels, directions, speeds and environments. 

Exercise must abide by these human body basics, if you want to create the healthy, strong, lean, energetic and fit body you desire.

The Problem

Modern conventional Trainers & strength training programs:

1 - Only train the “showy” muscles. This leaves hundreds of smaller structural muscles and fascial networks untrained. When this supportive musculature becomes weak, the larger muscles will eventually overpower them leading to an out-of-balance body. This can lead to a host of problems like: right-to-left asymmetries, distorted movement, increased joint pain, spinal stress and tight achy muscles. What about balanced, all-around strength and fitness?

2 - Assume you have a “textbook-perfect” body. If your muscles, nervous system, joints, physiology, digestion, hormones, stress and recovery systems, etc, did everything perfectly, every single day, then most traditional programs may work fine for you. There’s a small minority of people who fit that category. What about the majority of us who have a normal physiology that experiences ups and downs?

3 - Use over-burdening intensity. The train-until-you-drop intensity promoted by many conventional programs borders on physical abuse. Only those with “superhuman-genetics” and steel-cable for ligaments and tendons can tolerate that type of extreme exercise intensity and still get results. That category of people is very small. How are the rest of us who don’t have superhuman-genetics supposed to exercise?

Conventional methods are making
our health & fitness problems worse, not better.

The result of following conventional strength training is developing, what I call, “counterfeit” strength.

Coun·ter·feit (kaunt-ər-fit) 1. something likely to be mistaken for something of higher value 2. being false, artificial, pseudo, unauthentic or treacherous 3. A non-genuine article; a fake.

My Definition of “Counterfeit” Strength Training 1. methods that overly rely on training the large muscles of the body using isolation exercises without proper structural muscle support. 2. methods that build “workout” strength and not functional strength-you-can-use in life or sport.

Counterfeit methods only build strength in:

• SOME muscles – instead of every muscle

• CERTAIN body positions – instead of any body position

• SOME movements – instead of all movements

Problems created by Counterfeit Strength Training:

• Weakened core, body structure and joints

• Imbalanced strength, movement compensations and asymmetries

• Poor brain-to-muscle connection. Some muscles develop high-activation and skill ability (PhD level) while other muscles remain at low-activation and skill ability (Elementary level)

The Past

All the ancient exercise systems of the past: Egypt, China, India, Greece, Rome looked at the human body as a whole. Mind - Body - Spirit. Which is why these systems addressed everything from breathing, digestion, proper rest, proper thinking and physical training in a complete and balanced way. They understood that everything is connected.  

Throughout history, exercise followed a total-body approach. And in the 1800’s the term “Physical Culture” was coined to describe this practice. 

For thousands of years, physical trainers taught total-body movement-based exercise working the large AND supporting muscles resulting in complete and balanced development of the body. 

This is why all gyms used to look like THESE: (tap to scroll) 

Around 1950, two things emerged that led to the demise of the total-body exercise tradition: 

1. Exercise Machines that isolated muscle groups

2. Anabolic Steroids 

Exercise machine manufacturers spent a lot of money convincing people into thinking that exercising with machines was better. These "assembly-line" one-size-fits-all machine-based workouts were easy to teach but was not as effective as the original Physical Culture approach. Unfortunately, people believed the manufacturers marketing message and quickly traded substance for a bunch of shiny machines.

Before steroids, the only way to get results was by using scientific exercise, eating right and healthy habits. Steroids allowed people to get results WITHOUT proper training and nutrition. Hence, following a healthy lifestyle didn't matter anymore.

In time, the original "Physical Culture" approach to exercise, nutrition, healthy lifestyle and personal development was discarded. And today, it's practically non-existent. 

Why is this important?

Modern training methods [After 1950] were heavily influenced by equipment manufacturers and steroid-using athletes. These extreme “no pain, no gain” programs were sold to the masses but neglected to share that they only work if you used steroids and/or have “super-human” genetics. This is the main reason why the majority of people always struggle to get results from conventional methods.

Many of the health and fitness problems we face today is because of ignoring our Physical Culture past. 

PHYSICAL CULTURE HIERARCHY:
• Health is always 1st – restoring and preparing the body for results
• Strength is 2nd – to be developed to enhance results
• Appearance is 3rd – which improved automatically as a result of attaining the previous two of the hierarchy: Health and Strength

PHYSICAL CULTURE PRINCIPLES:
• The Human Body is a dynamic living "machine"
• Total-body exercises are a must for authentic results  
• Balanced physical development is the ultimate goal
• Fitness-for-Life: purpose is to create healthy habits, a strong, fit and energetic body to enhance quality of life, increase longevity and to become a better person.

The Solution

My FUSION FITNESS & PERFORMANCE™ System has returned to the original time-proven Physical Culture methods of the past and combined them with present-day science. After decades-long intensive study: 15 years of in-the-trenches experience as a Trainer, 6 years of painstaking research reviewing physical culture methods of the past and present-day exercise science, 2 years (and counting) of development and meticulous refinements, a system was born. A total health, fitness and performance system that delivers consistent results in the most efficient way possible.

Restoration, Fitness and Performance all in one.

As with all the successful training systems of the past, my system looks at the human body as a whole. Mind - Body - Spirit. It addresses everything from breathing, digestion, proper rest, mindset and physical training in a balanced way for vibrant health, fitness and performance. The approach is best-of-both-worlds system you won't find anywhere else.

The original methods give us the time-tested principles proven to work. And new technology gives us more tools to apply those proven exercise principles. 

The science shows me ‘what’ to do - and the art is in ‘how’ it’s done.

My Core-to-Strength™ “through-the-core” strength training works the body “from-the-inside-out”, solving all the problems created by conventional strength training:

1 - Core-to-Strength trains ALL muscles… not just the external muscles with isolation exercises. Our total-body exercises train the entire body: core, internal muscles and external muscles, all together. This creates balanced, all-around strength and fitness.

2 - Core-to-Strength works for ALL bodies… not just bodies that are textbook-perfect. If something isn’t working, we can “trouble-shoot” to identify the problem and make the needed adjustments to keep you moving forward. This allows for every body to exercise effectively.

3 - Core-to-Strength works for ALL levels… not just those who have “super” genetics. Our program has multiple variations of exercises, stretches, routines and training techniques that can match the right amount of intensity for your fitness level. This makes success attainable for all.

Core-to-Strength has 3-stages of development:

Stage one: weakened core. Goal is to restore the foundation.
Stage two: strong core. Goal is to build strength, skills and abilities.
Stage three: complete core. Goal is balanced strength, skills and abilities.

Each stage prepares you to advance to the next CTS level.

Old & New

Science & Art

My Studio

My private exercise studio continues the tradition of the original gyms with open space for total-body exercise, personal instruction and proven tools: Indian clubs, barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, cables & pulleys, medicine balls, ropes, bands and more.