At Blu Cocoon Med Spa in San Jose we love beautifying our clients. On a daily basis, we help people “renew their outer beauty and their inner spirit“. Why? Because when people feel good about themselves, it shows from the inside out. Here’s a little secret: Botox, Dysport, dermal fillers and facials are not the only ways that our clients get beautiful. Some of them also work very hard at it through a special personal training program call ISOTONEX, by our friend, and a San Jose personal trainer, Ray Vargas.
Ray Vargas – ISOTONEXWe’ve chosen to feature Ray Vargas on our med spa blog because, like at Blu Cocoon, he uses his business to make a difference, one person at a time. Sure he loves fitness and is passionate about helping people obtain an optimum physical state, but for Ray it’s not all about how they look – he cares about their outlook as well – he loves to see how a physical transformation can bring on a mental transformation, “making a positive difference in people’s lives both inside and out”. That is why we love and respect him!
Q: You are so passionate about what you do Ray – what made you decide to get into training as a profession?
My relationship with health & fitness started about 20 years ago as an undersized high school athlete. As a naturally skinny kid, I always strived for optimal physical performance, but often found that I just could not compete with some of my bigger and stronger classmates. In search of a solution to these personal obstacles, I discovered health & fitness was a very positive avenue for physical self-improvement and stress reduction. As I began to eat correctly and see the fruits of my labor in the visible improvements in my own body ~ I was absolutely hooked for life.
As the years passed, I began to use this contagious energy and my ability to translate years of my own serious training into “personalized” road maps of success to educate, motivate and inspire people in all areas of personal health & fitness. Now my greatest satisfaction comes from making a positive difference in people’s lives both inside and out. Nothing means more to me than seeing a client’s physical and emotional transformations as they begin to look and feel better about themselves.
Q: ISOTONEX is all about “High Intensity Training” Can you talk more about what that means and how your distinct approach to fitness works so well?
The ISOTONEX difference is cemented in my commitment to offer “personalized” programs to every client. It’s very important to remember that each client’s body structure and composition is unique by nature and requires a tailored approach based on desired goals.
Quite often many people read fitness magazines, watch training video demonstrations and visit websites that give fantastic tips and guidelines. These articles, blogs and viral videos can be extremely helpful in getting started on the right track; on the other hand they only provide very generalized and broad based advice.
Fitness is very similar to fashion and the hip trends in today’s society. There is lots of great stuff being offered out there; but not everything is conducive for everyone. For example, two females that are 5’6 and weight 135 lbs can look very different from each other, even to the extreme of being polar opposites. One might have a body fat percentage of 33%, while the other might have a percentage of only 22%. The lady with the 22% body fat has the higher metabolic rate because the amount of muscle she carries around on her frame is greater than the lady with the higher body fat percentage at the same weight. This extra muscle mass makes her a more efficient fat burning machine, both at rest and during exercise sessions.
This cause / effect of muscle mass on metabolic rate can often be seen in men that can often get away with eating a little more poorly without gaining weight as rapidly in comparison to their female counterparts. In general, men have more muscle mass and therefore have a greater calorie burning capacity.
The key to achieving that lean and toned body look is all about reducing body fat and increasing your metabolic rate. It has very little to do with the numbers on the scale. It starts by reducing the subcutaneous calories underneath your skin by doing cardio and building muscle on the weight room floor to increase your body’s horsepower.
It is this underlying approach that separates ISOTONEX programs from other fitness programs out there today!
Q: One of the things we love about your work is your distinct philosophy. Can you tell us about this and how you developed this view on fitness?
My philosophy is to encourage my clients to consistently make small incremental changes and not necessarily to be 100% perfect all the time. Rather I encourage my clients to take the approach of getting 1% better everyday. It has been proven time and time again that this is how people at the highest levels of performance become great.
The more you research powerful and successful people; the more you discover they are real people like you and I. Yet, its what they do on a consistent basis that separates them from the pack. It becomes apparent that successful people consistently dedicate themselves to making small incremental improvements day after day, year after year. Then as the years pass, they dramatically increase the distance between themselves and those who stay stagnant or are less disciplined in their approach.
At the end of each day, if you are 1% better in any area of fitness – well that would make you 7% better at the end of the week, 49% better by the end of the month and 588% better by the end of the year. These are pretty staggering numbers and shows the power of making slow and steady progress year after year.
Q: We have a lot of the same clients. Why do you think that is (and you are welcome to say why you love the ladies of BluCocoon, we’ll take those compliments!!)?
It really begins with creating a culture that is special regardless of the industry, fitness or otherwise, “customer service” is king and will persevere through the good times and the bad. The staff at the Blu Cocoon always goes above and beyond to serve all of the needs of their clients from the moment they walk through the doors. This level of service and company culture begins with their charismatic leader / owner Cristina and then is passed on down through the rest of team and onto each and every client. It’s as if the members of their staff wake up and thinks to themselves: “what are you going to do to make a difference in someone’s life today?”
This is the exact same approach I take with each and every one of my clients. In these stressful economic times, my goal is to be a “game changer,” a beacon of light that exudes a positive attitude and a delivers a “Can Do” belief that anything is possible to all of my clients. Walt Disney says, “Everything speaks.” What you wear, what you say, your body language, your energy, your session, the music, the cleanliness, the colors, the smell, the service, and the experience that you deliver all tell a story.
In my opinion both ISOTONEX and Blu Cocoon execute on these strategies day in / day out and it is this level of commitment to service excellence for our clients that makes our services stand out from the pack.
Q: What is one piece of health advice that you want to leave with our readers?
My #1 suggestion for your readers is to limit the number of times they weigh themselves’ on a scale and begin judging the success or failure of their fitness routine based on the way they feel, the number of inches lost and size reductions in their clothing. Too often in our society we hear so much about a person’s scale weight; when that is really only 1 of several key factors of success. It is essential to remember that muscle is always more dense (not heavier) than fat. Therefore muscle takes up much less surface area in comparison to fat.
This is the very reason that a strength training routine is so vital for both males and females. As you progress with a weight training regiment, you will become firmer and begin to notice a significant reduction in circumference in all areas of your physique. The numbers you see on the scale are truly UN-important as you progress through this process. The fact that you are loosing inches (taking notches in on your belt) is the kind of success that people should be aggressively seeking.