Fitness Gurus

I've been meaning to start a thread on this topic in hopes of fattening up this subforum. This isn't the best article to start it, but it is Dia de los Muertos. :o

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MANDY BLANK FITNESS LEGEND DEAD AT 42
10/31/2018 9:37 AM PDT

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EXCLUSIVE DETAILS

Mandy Blank -- one of the most famous female fitness competitors ever -- died this week at the age of 42, TMZ Sports has confirmed.

Law enforcement sources tell us ... the former IFBB World Champion was discovered by a housekeeper in the bathtub of her L.A. home on October 29.

The housekeeper called 911 and paramedics raced to the scene -- where she was pronounced dead.

Our sources say no drugs or alcohol were found at the scene and there's nothing criminally suspicious about her death. We're told the plan was to conduct an autopsy and toxicology to determine an exact cause of death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMfw6YXjFqY

Blank was a legend in the bodybuilding and fitness world -- winning the IFBB World Championships in 1999, the youngest competitor to ever do it at the time.

She also placed 5th in the 1998 World Arnold Classic and was later honored by Bodybuilding and Fitness magazine as having the "Greatest Glutes of All Time," according to her website.

Mandy went on to become a major celebrity fitness trainer and listed clients from Marcus Allen to Mickey Rourke, Alex Rodriguez, Pauly Shore, Rohan Marley and Natasha Lyonne.

RIP

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We never know when we're gonna go.
That is unless, we plan it.
RIP to her.

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Meet the 63-year-old fitness guru thousands of Hongkongers swear by – and her classes are free
Mona Chan Man-lai uses 26 simple signature moves to keep both the young and old in shape. Hongkongers are flocking to city parks to learn her secrets
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 01 December, 2018, 12:33pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 01 December, 2018, 12:33pm
Stephanie Tsui

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Slim, bendy, and with a following of almost 120,000 on Facebook, Mona Chan Man-lai is what most people would consider a fitness guru.

But you won’t see her showing off her curves in trendy workout clothes or sipping expensive teas reputed to aid weight loss. For 63-year-old Chan, being a fitness instructor is about connecting with people, and giving back.

For the past two years, Chan has been teaching classes at public parks across Hong Kong – for free.

“Nothing gives me greater fulfilment than helping people get fit and regain mobility,” the retired stockbroker says.

Her students are aged anywhere from 30 to 90, and occasionally children take part. Chan’s Facebook page is filled with testimonials from sufferers of aches and pains, stroke survivors, and even a man with arthritis of the spine. All claim that practising Chan’s 26 signature moves helped their conditions improve significantly.

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Chan teaches 26 signature moves to keep people mobile. Photo: Jonathan Wong

“I’d been experiencing stiffness below the neck, which made it hard for me to fall asleep. But thanks to Teacher Mona, the stiffness is gone and I can now sleep through the night,” wrote Facebook user Helen Wun.

Fellow happy customer Lee Kuen-kuen wrote: “It works! Thank you, Teacher Mona, for helping me find relief from my oral ulcers.”

Chan teaches simple stretches inspired by disciplines such as yoga and qigong. But some of her moves are less common, including tongue exercises and basic pressure point massage.

“I make sure my moves are easy to follow. It’s not about striking complicated poses, but making sure they count. I always tell my students to hold a certain position long enough to feel a deep stretch,” Chan says.

After retiring at 54, she began volunteering at social service centres, distributing meals and daily essentials to the underprivileged. Earlier this year she branched out on her own by setting up her own food distribution movement.

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Venues include Victoria Park in Causeway Bay (pictured) and New Town Plaza in Sha Tin. Photo: Jonathan Wong

“I hope to do something for Hong Kong, even if it’s something small,” she says.

Her fitness venture first took off when she began volunteering as an instructor at a social service centre run by the Methodist church. It was here that she originally gained a following. However, when the church ended the arrangement, she took to teaching in a public park.

“By then I’d already gathered a following of about 40 students,” she says.

“We didn’t know where to go next, and I didn’t want to disappoint them, so we started having our classes at Aldrich Bay Park.”

These free sessions at the venue in Sai Wan Ho on Hong Kong Island attracted large groups of curious onlookers, some of whom later became her students. Attendance at some of her classes has since ballooned to more than 700, she says.

“I never expected to gain such a following. It’s really puzzling.”

Other venues include Victoria Park in Causeway Bay and New Town Plaza in Sha Tin. Community centres also now offer her services, but for a fee of between HK$40 (US$5.10) and HK$90, to cover rental costs.

She teaches a total of seven classes a day, six days a week.

“Yes, it gets tiring,” she says. “But it’s meaningful. When people come to me with issues, I research their problems and experiment with exercises that may be able to help them. It’s a great learning process for me as well.”

What keeps Chan going is her attitude – she is positive and always grateful.

“We should all learn to be happy with what we have, and comfortable with what we don’t,” Chan says. “There’s always going to be someone else out there who’s having a worse day than us.”

Chan says she will continue to teach until her body tells her she can’t. In the meantime, she hopes people of all ages will try to stay as active as possible, even if their busy schedules do not make it easy.

“Get up and take a coffee break,” Chan says. “You’ll be more productive if you give yourself a breather every hour or so.”

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I want to know what those 26 moves are.

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Fitness Influencer Anna Victoria Only Changed by 5 Lbs. in Her Insane 11-Year Transformation
JULIE MAZZIOTTA
January 15, 2019 05:28 PM

In 11 years, Anna Victoria completely transformed her body — and she has the pictures to prove it. But incredibly, her weight has only shifted by 5 lbs.

The fitness influencer, 30, joined in on the popular ten year challenge, which has social media users sharing photos of themselves now and a decade earlier. Victoria cheated a little and shared a photo from 11 years earlier, but it was worth it to show how much she’s changed.

“Does anyone else look back and feel like periods of time in your life were another life entirely?” she asked on Instagram.

Victoria said that in the photo from 2007, where she’s dressed in a bikini and holding up a friend for a keg stand, she wasn’t healthy.

“Before: partied (clearly), ate only fast food, wouldn’t step foot in a gym, drank almost no water, had trouble sleeping, had digestive and GI issues from poor eating habits,” she wrote.

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annavictoria
Verified
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51,580 likes

When I first started my journey, there’s no way I ever would’ve imagined I’d still be here. I was the LAST person my friends would’ve caught in the gym or eating healthy. In fact, I hid my journey for the first YEAR because of it. 🙈 This journey can be scary you know? Trying to work on improving your habits and not knowing whether you’re going to succeed or not...
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But what I quickly realized was that no matter how much I struggled, the fact that I was trying was enough to be proud of. That was more than most could say! Especially those who are the quickest to criticize. I learned to be proud of my journey and of my struggles because it meant I was at least learning from those struggles.

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Now Victoria’s life is the polar opposite.

“After: enjoys a glass of wine or two here and there, eats 80/20, works out for my mental, emotional and physical health, drinks 3-4 liters of water a day, prioritizes sleep, no more digestive and GI issues (except for when I have huge cheat meals).”

Victoria said that those changes between 2007 and 2018 — things she now preaches to her 1.3 million followers — changed her life, even if they didn’t make much of a difference on the scale.

“While I didn’t have a ton of weight to lose, [and] my transformation was largely health focused, I am also proud of the physical change. And there’s only a 5 lb difference between these two photos!” she said. “But one thing I want to add and make clear is despite the differences between these two photos, I still loved myself in the 2007 photo. No matter how much I did or didn’t weigh, I never let it phase me and question my worth.”

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Anna Victoria/Instagram

Victoria said that the same is true for her followers, especially if they’re comparing themselves to old photos.

“YOU deserve to love yourself now, no matter where you are in your journey, even if you haven’t even started,” she said. “Please know that now and always.”

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It's not how many pounds. It's where you put them.

The definition of tone deaf...:rolleyes:

There are some embedded vids in the original article.

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A Fitness Trainer Who Hosts Invite-Only Classes For "Skinny *****es" Is Under Fire For Using Native Kenyans As "Props" In A Workout
Russell Bateman of the Skinny ***** Collective has apologized for the optics of the retreat.
Stephanie McNeal
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Last updated on March 9, 2019, at 5:03 p.m. ET
Posted on March 9, 2019, at 2:38 p.m. ET

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Russell Bateman

A fitness trainer who hosts invite-only workouts for "skinny *****es" has apologized after hosting a retreat in Kenya where his students worked out in and around the native Maasai people, in a way that people online criticized as "clearly exploitative."

Russell Bateman is a trainer from London and founder of the "Skinny ***** Collective," an invite-only workout class. His website is "down for maintenance" at the moment, but a cached version explains what his workout aims to do.

"Popular with the A-list and a myriad of supermodels, it lies somewhere between forward thinking fashionable fitness and a cave girl sorority," the website said, adding the workout is a mixture of "high-intensity and animalistic movements."

Journalists who have been invited to the workout, currently only available in London and New York, have described it as "cult-like" and "vaguely chaotic," but also full of challenging moves and a good workout.

Bateman's Instagram account frequently posts photos and videos of his workouts and clients, some of whom include celebrities like Ellie Goulding.

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Instagram: @russellsbc

On Friday, people started criticizing Bateman and the Skinny ***** Collective for photos he posted on his Instagram account of a retreat he is holding in Kenya.

It's difficult to know a ton of details about the retreat, as it is invite-only and the collective's website is down. BuzzFeed News has asked Bateman to provide more details about the retreat, but he did not immediately reply.

A Facebook post, which has since been deleted, described the retreat as: "SBC AFRICA. Our most ambitious retreat yet. March 6th to 13th. Kenya."

But screenshots that Bateman had posted to his Instagram stories began circulating of events during the retreat. They have since been deleted.

Blogger Diet Prada re-uploaded some of the videos, criticizing them as an indication of the "colonial mindset."

"They also managed to use the local Maasai people not only as a backdrop, but as literal props in their fitness routines. The videos have already been deleted, but screenshots appear to show the girls writhing around the locals like an obstacle course," the blogger wrote in part.

The videos uploaded by Diet Prada, originally from Bateman's account, show the women doing various fitness exercises surrounded by Maasai people.

Bateman also shared a video of the women dancing around a tree.

In another video, Bateman gathers with the women eating in a field. He asks, "Cassenia, can you pass me the chia berry jam?"

Many people who saw Diet Prada's post were horrified, and began to call out Bateman as well.

One woman, Tracy Muringa Njeri, shared more screenshots on her page, saying the way the collective treated the Maasai brought her to tears. Njeri, who is from Kenya but currently lives in Italy, told BuzzFeed News she decided to speak out because she is "so tired of opening Instagram or magazines and seeing people of color used as props in the background."

She said the videos seemed to play into a "colonial fantasy."

"It was just sickening, hurtful and painful to see those images," she said, "[knowing] how far we have come being a colonized nation, the atrocities people faced while fighting for their freedom, and especially this community, that is a beacon of standing firm in their tradition, not letting Western powers dictate their way of living and having still survived till now."

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Instagram: @https://www.instagram.com/tracy_njeri/?hl=en

On Saturday morning, Bateman responded to the critiques of his photos on Instagram. He wrote that the collective was "required to be accompanied by the tribe at all times" because the retreat was taking place on the tribe's ancestral lands.

During the retreat, Bateman claimed, a "friendship was formed" and the Maasai "joined in" their activities and gave permission to be filmed.

"Our intention was to promote a cross-cultural exchange through shared experiences, and to highlight the beauty of Kenya and its indigenous people," he wrote. "However, having taken a step back, we accept and understand that our content fell well short of this aim, and lacked appropriate cultural sensitivity by reinforcing colonial era stereotypes of people of color."

He said the criticism has been a "huge wake-up call" and promised to do better. Bateman didn't immediately return a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.

Stephanie McNeal
Stephanie McNeal is a social news editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.
Contact Stephanie McNeal at stephanie.mcneal@buzzfeed.com.

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Coroner Says Celebrity Trainer Mandy Blank Did Not Have Drugs in Her System When She Died at 42
The fitness instructor was found dead in her bathtub in October
By Julie Mazziotta June 28, 2019 03:29 PM

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MANDY BLANK/INSTAGRAM
The cause of Amanda “Mandy” Blank’s death is still “undetermined” after a full autopsy, the Los Angeles coroner’s office reports.

The celebrity fitness trainer and bodybuilder, who worked with stars like Alex Rodriguez, Mickey Rourke, Michelle Monaghan and Jordana Brewster, was found dead in the bathtub in her Los Angeles home on Oct. 29. She was 42.

Medical responders declined to name a cause of death until after an autopsy was completed, but now, eight months later, examiners say that they still do not know how she died. But, they confirmed that there were no drugs in her system at the time of her death, and they do not believe she died by suicide or from foul play.

According to the autopsy report, completed on June 26 and obtained by PEOPLE, Blank’s maid found her in a partially-filled bathtub. The medical examiner, Dr. Nicholas Stanzione, reported that her head was above water and did not show signs of trauma, but “drowning cannot be excluded” as a cause of death, as she had “abundant” amounts of edema — swelling due to excess fluid — in her nostrils. However, it was not present anywhere else in her body.


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Mandy Blank FACEBOOK

Stanzione also wrote in his report that he performed additional drug testing at the request of Blank’s friends.

“During the investigation, concerned friends inquired about the possibility of ingesting opiates or other substances,” he said. “Fentanyl and opiates are tested and are negative. In addition, designer opiates are tested and the results are also negative.”

Stanzione also tested for traces of dietary supplements, alcohol, medications or illegal substances, and all came back negative. Still, he said, an overdose or drowning are still possibilities.

“Amanda Blank’s position in the bathtub along with the edema present in the airway suggests a possible overdose situation; however, drowning cannot be excluded,” he said.

Without knowing her condition prior to her death, Stanzione wrote, he cannot rule on the cause.

“The terminal events surrounding her final moments are unknown, therefore the manner of death is undetermined,” he said. “If new information becomes available, the case will be revisited.”

Blank started working in fitness at age 18, and after just one year in the field, she placed 5th in the World Fitness Olympia — a bodybuilding competition — and soon gained professional status.

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Mandy Blank FACEBOOK

She went on to become the youngest competitor to win the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) World Championships and claimed the 1998 Fitness Nationals Champion title and the 1999 World Champion title, according to her website.

Most recently, Blank was working as a fitness trainer and coach for her celebrity clientele and people across Los Angeles with her online training and nutritional programs, called the Blank Body program.

“Without my health and fitness, I have nothing,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

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Sad story. I wonder what the cause was.