Gabreal Velez

1. We understand that you have extensive experience in the fitness industry. Can you tell us about your background and how you became interested in fitness and wellness? I started my fitness training journey in high school. I was always interested in playing football at an early age so I tried out for my high school football team and made it onto the starting roster. I was raised in a single parent household so my financial situation wasn’t ideal. As a result, I had to quit football and work part time to pay for my car. I needed to fill the void that I had by not being able to train with the football team. I ended up enrolling in a weight training class in school. It was a coed class which had full use of the football training facility. Early on I noticed that the females in class were not participating in any of the weight training activities. I approached a few of them and asked why they were not taking advantage of the gym. They responded by telling me that they were embarrassed because they had no idea what to do. So I decided to invite a few of them to my health club after school to show them a few exercises that they could do in class. I wanted them to have the same appreciation that I had for fitness and it worked. After highschool, I enrolled in the local community college while working full time for the Marriott hotel. I spent 7 years working with the Marriott in Warner Center Woodland Hills. Although I had the opportunity to work in many departments, I knew that this was not my future. I enrolled in a weekend personal training course and received my first personal training certificate. At that time, personal training was a relatively new concept so there wasn’t much demand for personal trainers. After I left the Marriott, I started my personal training journey with Bally Total Fitness as a floor trainer. My job description consisted of assisting members with workout programs. During my employment with Bally, I was introduced to Andrew Steinfeld, Jake Steinfeld's brother who was hired by Bally Total Fitness to overhaul their personal training program. This encounter changed my life. I was hired by Andrew and his company Body Design, to implement his training program at new Bally training facilities. Soon after, I was promoted to lead Body Design VIP trainer. My job consisted of performing private training sessions with Hollywood's elite actors and actresses. After my employment with Body Design, I opened the first west coast location of Crunch Fitness from New York.