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Kaiser Serajuddin: Hey. What’s up? This is Kaiser and you’re of course listening to me on Super-Trainer and today I got a pretty wild guest. He’s a celebrity trainer to some big name stars which I’m sure is going to come out in the process of our conversation. I’m talking to Jay Cardiello. Jay, what’s up, man?
Jay Cardiello: How are you doing, Kaiser? How is everything going today?
Kaiser Serajuddin: Everything is good. Everything is real good. Yeah. So we were talking a little bit before I turned the recorder on and you were out in Vegas, right?
Jay Cardiello: That is correct. I [0:00:41] [Indiscernible] and the sun is setting. It’s very beautiful out here so we’re just working on some stuff out here for him and just getting prepared for a great 2009.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yeah. So the “him” that Jay is talking about, you have a pretty interesting training practice where you’re kind of a live-in trainer. You have one major client. Can you disclose who that is?
Jay Cardiello: Sure. That’s Curtis Jackson or 50 Cent.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yeah, I think that people listening to this, they might have heard of him but yeah, it’s pretty crazy. I mean not only the fact that he’s such a big star but that a lot of his fame and his notoriety is because of his physique and you’re kind of the guy that can take the credit for that I guess, right?
Jay Cardiello: Well, I can say I’ve given him the direction. I mean he has [Indiscernible] his motivation, his drive to become successful in everything and everything his brand puts his name on. I mean he’s up at 6 o’clock in the morning. We’re in the gym by 7:00. By 10 o’clock, he has already downed a few meals. He has already done several business calls.
We’re in New York City by the middle of the day and we’ve done five or six of the business meetings. We’re back in the gym in the afternoon [0:01:59] [Indiscernible] getting everything set up [Indiscernible]. It’s an easy gig because he doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. He doesn’t do drugs. Everything he does is train his body physically, mentally and spiritually across the [Indiscernible] very easy gig because whatever I really want to throw out there [Indiscernible] my training, my nutrition, whatever it is, he’s always game for it as long as it’s going to benefit him health-wise and [0:02:35] [Indiscernible].
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yeah. It’s a pretty wild schedule. How long have you been training with 50?
Jay Cardiello: I’ve been training him since 2006.
Kaiser Serajuddin: OK. Yeah, because I’ve been following his career for a while kind of like as a fan and a fan of his music and I know that he used to be kind of overweight growing up. So did you get him once he was a little [Indiscernible] after he leaned up or did you help him lose the weight?
Jay Cardiello: When we first met, he was around 232 pounds and [0:03:08] [Indiscernible] we ran a sort of – because [Indiscernible] we ran a camp for about four months of intense training three times a day. He would stick to the calories even though he [Indiscernible] and we came down very quickly. He went from about 18 [Indiscernible] body fat down to [Indiscernible] where he was roughly about 4.5, 5 percent body fat at I believe 199. So …
Kaiser Serajuddin: Oh, wow.
Jay Cardiello: That was our goal. We did that in four months and it’s just [0:03:46] [Indiscernible] worked their butt off and that’s how everything gets done is hard work.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yeah, yeah. That’s pretty interesting.
Jay Cardiello: The last [Indiscernible] which you can [Indiscernible] you will see him. He’s there. He’s 195 pounds at about 5 percent body fat and they wanted to get more of an athletic [Indiscernible] you’re looking into Men’s Health as opposed to a Muscle and Fitness [0:04:28] [Indiscernible] and every six months, we change the physique and [Indiscernible] in 2009.
Kaiser Serajuddin: That’s pretty crazy. I mean on the one hand, it sounds kind of – I don’t know, kind of low key that you have just this one major client but from the way you made it sound and really how much of his career depends on his look, it can be more than a fulltime type of thing to stay on top of, right?
Jay Cardiello: It’s 100 percent fulltime. As I said 10 months out of the year. I would take a small vacation and we’re together 24 hours a day and what that means is that we have his meals prepared every – from how much carbs, how much protein, how much fat is included in each meal because he’s [Indiscernible] several things going on.
He’s a fulltime actor as well now so we’re just trying to keep that body and that immune system strong throughout the whole year and never have a breakdown. We don’t train hard everyday of the year. We take breaks. We do swimming. We do Pilates. We do yoga. We do every training. We do athletic training. We will play basketball. We will go [0:05:40] [Indiscernible] cycle of the training is different or according to what he actually wants to create his body into and yes, it’s [Indiscernible] and when you think of him, think of the music. Think of fitness and he turns his body definitely into a [Indiscernible].
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yeah. No, it sounds excellent. Now I think one of the major questions going through the minds of a lot of people that are listening to us talk, a lot of my readers, is how they can get involved in training celebrities, things like that. But I’ve read some of the stuff you have, some of the blogging you do and it’s not always as glamorous as it seems. There is kind of – there are parts to it that aren’t – it’s not everything …
Jay Cardiello: [0:06:34] [Indiscernible] celebrity that wants you to become that celebrity. There’s only three percent of the population or five percent of the population. Once you become [Indiscernible] private life. Becoming a celebrity trainer, there are a few people [Indiscernible] so they give up their personal life meaning in the sense that [Indiscernible].
I don’t know how you’re going to do that, keeping your personal life. I don’t know how to accomplish being [Indiscernible]. You have to come from a very good, strong family and have your mindset be able to not go through any lifestyle and know that you’re only here for that client. You’re not here for yourself.
I always tell trainers who are strength and conditioning coaches if you have [0:07:19] [Indiscernible] and it doesn’t matter how much you’re getting paid but you’re happy and have stability and getting health insurance, stick with it. Don’t go on the road. If …
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