Our fitness guru Raif Derrazi gets sweaty with trainer Marvin Telp who tells us how to get in a workout at home. Whether your saving money on the gym, stuck at home due to Covid-19, or just wan to sneak in a quick workout – Marvin’s got tips that will get your heart pumping.
About Raif: On his 27th birthday, Raif’s greatest fear came to life when he was diagnosed with AIDS. Realizing his ‘victim mindset’ he was determined to change and regain control of his life. Seven years later, Raif is now a pro natural competitive physique bodybuilder. And in realizing that so few role models existed for the HIV community, he now talks about his HIV status on social media in hopes of providing guidance and inspiration to others. With a growing YouTube subscribership and following on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook, he shares his life and his journey living with HIV, embracing a fitness lifestyle, personal-growth oriented and inspirationally inclined!
Video Transcript:
RAIF DERRAZI
Why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself?
MARVIN TELP
I am 36 years old and trapped in a house, like most of us. So right now, we’re just trying to figure all this chaos out but I’m originally from Baltimore, born and raised and now I’m in California.
RAIF DERRAZI
What brought you into fitness?
MARVIN TELP
I played sports since I was nine. High school, you start realizing the importance of training.
RAIF DERRAZI
You’re used to training clients in the gym but now with these mandatory lockdowns we’re forced to do the same kind of fitness training, but virtually.
MARVIN TELP
Look, we’re face to face, I can give you a lot of energy and I can–
RAIF DERRAZI
Correct.
MARVIN TELP
And now that I’m home and sitting behind the desk, sometimes I feel confined.
RAIF DERRAZI
What do you think, firstly, for your clients, as far as mental health goes, now that we’re indoors a lot?
MARVIN TELP
Being able to move, getting your body, to actually get the blood flowing and release the hormones and endorphins and all the things that we need to just make us feel better.
RAIF DERRAZI
You are a man of many talents. You also have a funny bone.
MARVIN TELP
I’ve been doing standup now for nine years, the stages have been closed. And so it’s come down to me, just writing incessantly.
RAIF DERRAZI
You are gonna be showing us some body weight exercises, workouts that we can do from home that don’t require dumb bells and the usual equipment. So it’s accessible to all of us.
MARVIN TELP
Yes. First thing we’re gonna do is a dynamic warmup. It’s one of my favorite ways to get the body going. And we’re just gonna start doing toy soldiers or whipped between soldiers. It’s going to be opposite arm reach. We’re going to take our left leg, bring it straight up and ride our right hand towards that far. So it’s an easy switch and swing and then switching legs and arms. The next thing is, we’re gonna do a sumo squat. So what I wanna do is I wanna open up your legs. 45 degrees, 45 degrees. You wanna drop into a sumo. And from there we’re gonna come up, squeezing our inner thighs and our butt to bring us back up.
Perfect, coming up.
And now one of my favorites is the lunge. So instead of just doing a basic forward lunge we’re gonna add a slight twist to the side. So you’re lifting the outside leg, turning the direction that leg is on. So to your left and then dropping down into your lunge.
Back up.
To the center.
RAIF DERRAZI
How low do you want me to go?
MARVIN TELP
You don’t want your knees to hit the ground. Again we want you to be comfortable in the movement. Don’t over push. We don’t want your knee to shoot in front of the toes. We’re gonna keep your weight on that mid foot to your heel. And then the last one, pull we’re gonna go into a pushup position. So it’s a high planking exercise, push up position. You’re going to bring your left knee to your right elbow, coming back to neutral, and then switching, bringing the right knee, to the left elbow, back to neutral. We wanna have you here, to where you’re neutral.
RAIF DERRAZI
I’m already sweating.
MARVIN TELP
That’s a real quick three exercise and warm up that you can get done in 10 to 15 minutes because sometimes that’s all you have in a day.
RAIF DERRAZI
Marvin, thank you so much for showing us some quick moves.