Gus White
- Oct 5, 2021
- 15 min read

My interview for the digital medium Bulk Hackers

1) Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training

My name is Gustavo White and I’m 61 years old. I’m an Argentine living in Mexico City since 2002.

I have a bachelor’s degree in Administration. Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina and a Postgraduate Advanced in Planning and Strategic Marketing. Graduate School of Economic Sciences, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I’m happily married and have two daughters aged 24 and 18 years old.

I’m a Marketing Manager for a Tourist company in Mexico and it takes most of my time from Monday to Friday.

Fitness for me is not a hobby is a way of life.

I was born and raised in Argentina and since I was a child and teenager the athletic bodies of the movies, comics and wrestling heroes caught my attention. Whenever I drew a man, I made him with a V shaped back, magnificent set of biceps, ripped abs and wide shoulders. Since leaving my teens Sylvester Stallone struck and strongly motivated me in his roles of Rocky and Rambo and I began to become fascinated by boxing as a sport: Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Tommy Hearns were and still are my idols in this sport.

I've always been very fond of practice of several sports: Gymnastics, Rugby, Hockey, Football, Handball, Volleyball, Tennis among others but it was when I was 24 years old that I started training methodically in weight training to develop my body, along with boxing (I was trained by Sergio Victor Palma, a former Argentine Super Bantamweight Champion) and running to improve my athletic ability. From that moment on I was fascinated with Fitness, and I took it as a way of life. Stallone, my greatest inspiration, and my Fitness icon is in an impressive physical condition already past his 75 years of age.

Living in Mexico since 2002 and after some time training moderately, in 2006, passed my 40 years old, I fell in love with intense training after watching the film Rocky Balboa and returned to training heavily with Weights, Boxing and Cardio: running and rowing mainly and Fitness became a healthy obsession.

In 2012 I met, and I was fascinated by a complex discipline, such as the UFC - Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). This has had Georges St-Pierre as one of the greatest fighters in history, who has been UFC Welterweight and Middleweight Champion, as one of his best athletes, a true role model and who has been one of my main inspirations for the practice of martial arts and high-intensity conditioning (HIIT) that changed from there my way of training.

In 2018 I met CrossFit, both amateur level and the huge super athletes of the CrossFit Games such as Rich Fronning, Mat Fraser, Josh Bridges, Scott Panchik, Ben Smith, Cole Sager, Jacob Heppner, Dan Bailey, Sara Sigmundsdottir, Annie Torisdottir, Tia-Clair Toomey, Katrin Davidsdottir, Kara Webb Saunders, Sam Briggs, and Camile Leblanc-Bazinet among others. I was very excited about the concept and variety of CrossFit, I felt in love with this activity, I began to apply it and since then is the fundamental basis of my Training and in the way I train my trainees.

My main success story of Fitness is myself. I went from weighing 75 kg in 2007 to 73 kg that I have in 2021 but my body fat went from 25% to an 9% that I currently have with a high volume of muscle mass.

For a couple of years since I started my web page in 2012 Cleto Reyes, one of the most famous brands in the sport of Boxing, and they sponsored me until 2017, mainly due to my Boxing activities that I included in my Training as a Personal Trainer and for myself and I also produced a Boxing Basics Video that is already still in my YouTube Channel with their sponsorship.

I am a real FREAK considering the age that I am, the way I look, how I train, the way I motivate myself and the intuitive way I design and apply my workouts.

I eat, live and breathe Fitness as a Fulltime activity. When I don't train my trainees or train myself, I'm studying, reading about it, watching workouts videos, CrossFit assembling videos, writing a post or blog, researching how to design and apply what I study and read in training.

Besides Fitness I love good life, my family, food, and sports.

My case is that of a bachelor’s in administration who at 50 years old took his hobby gradually as his profession and who made his way in that industry at an age when one is already comforted both in his profession and in his finances. From how from a debacle in my personal economy the Fitness became a real way of life and how I quickly walked steps and experiences to see what niche I had to go to to practice my new profession.

2) Describe a typical day of training

Weight Training used to be my basic way of training and I complemented it with Cardio, Abs Work and Boxing. Now I train as much or hardest than several years ago, more focused and smartly and therefore after 50 years of youth, I'm in the best shape of my life.

The basis of my training today is CrossFit and I also train frequently on Weight training with my Bodyweight, Weights, Abs & Core exercises and Flexibility, Stretching and Mobility exercises.

My goal is to reach my best shape, a high level of athletic ability, a body fat of less than 8%, ripped, cut, and shredded.

My passion for Fitness has led me to be constantly studying and experimenting different ways to improve the type of training.

I strongly believe in muscle confusion and not by chance that is another fact on CrossFit on an everyday basis. In variety you’ll find success: you must renew the workouts that you do, the order in which you make them, the speed of your exercises, the duration, and the frequency of rest that you do in your training and the type of workouts you do to cause muscle confusion and improve results.

That personal experience and acquired knowledge is what I have tried and what I want to share with all those who ask for my advice on how to improve fitness and be better with themselves.

Since I restarted Fitness seriously again, I mainly train at home and in my Condo. Sometimes I train my trainees in a gym but nowadays - with a long Pandemia situation - I’m more used to Online Training, so I train at home. The Training I apply for my trainees are the ones I used for myself and according to their Fitness skills I adapt them.

On June 2018 I discovered and have been in training on CrossFit which is a physical conditioning system based on constantly varied exercises, with functional movements, executed at high intensity, based on 10 physical skills: cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, flexibility, strength, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy, all of them with excellent results that matched perfect with my way of Training.

All these exercises are 50-minute sessions working in my medium and maximum cardio intensity that allow me to maximize my athleticism.

I love Rock and Heavy/Hard Rock music, that is my preferred music and what I mainly use for Training. For my Training I like to use Nike apparel (shoes and cloth) and Rogue accessories for the CrossFit workouts, that pro stuff also motivates me.

I train at least 6 days a day, and frequently do 2 Training sessions a day.

On Wednesday 22nd January 2020 I achieved a New Milestone in my training: 233 consecutive days of training with No Rest. This is something I've never tried before. I did it at this stage where CrossFit is the basis of my training, taking care of my nutrition, consuming the right dietary supplements, respecting as much as possible the rest times, and doing the Warmup and Cooldown exercises using the GoWod Mobility First app that have come vital. The important thing is that during this more than a half-year period I continued to improve my marks in training.

On Thursday 23rd January 2020 I finally took my day off that I was needing and ended this streak to avoid falling on plateaus in my performance and avoid injuries because of tiredness.

I’m passionate about Bodyweight Training. The great advantage is that you don't need a gym and that you are able to train efficiently in the convenience of their own home.

All you need is your own physical being; you’ll never be without equipment or a facility. In other words, if you learn to use your body as a barbell then you’ll always could obtain a great workout. You can gain tremendous functional fitness in terms of strength, power, balance, endurance and even flexibility from progressive bodyweight training.

There are also multiple and excellent exercises to work each one of the muscle groups with your bodyweight; your own weight provides the resistance for the movement: chin-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, squats, lunges, planks, and dips among others.

For many years I was more concerned on aesthetics and Weight Training was my standard, but since I started CrossFit as my basic Training, I don’t train the bodybuilding way and I’m more Athletic focus, Functional Training focused and because of that more complete way of Training I built more muscle, feel better and develop a stronger as well as good looking body.

3) How do you keep going and push harder?

I have always said, and I really believe that age is just a number. At 61 years old I have a long way to go in Life and in Fitness. Another thing I’m convinced of is that the best is yet to come and in a sport such as CrossFit there so many things that I must learn, to master and develop that, feeling healthy and strong like I do, I’m eager to work out and improve.

I love my job, I love Fitness, love Life, and love my family, so the key point is to balance my life in every sense. Fortunately, my family understand well my passion and give me space for that.

The biggest challenge I had to face was no so long time ago, almost 7 to 4 years ago. I was running a marketing agency and my family and me had to suffer a very difficult economic situation, my financial status was hard, and Fitness became not only something I grab to keep me healthy and focused but something I embraced as a way of living. It became my first source of income. We had to change the place where we live, our way of living, our habits, and the way we eat. We went through it and could reach a balanced life but will never forget that tough moments that made my family and myself better human beings.

4) How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

I love the way I train nowadays. As I said CrossFit is my basic way of Training today for my trainees and for myself. It’s very funny, challenging and demanding at the same time.

My goal is to be a well-rounded CrossFit Athlete for the coming next 5 years and more…My dream is to compete in the Master class in the CrossFit Games.

My desire it to have my own Gym / Box as Gus White Fitness offering my style of Training and integrating it with other of my wife and I Passion: The Cuisine - our brand Fatto In Casa Mexico (https://fattoincasamex.wixsite.com/pizzaylasagna) with Good Nutrition offers and adding good brands of supplements and sports apparel.

At the same time, I’m doing well as a Marketing guy- like in Fitness and Life learning from every experience and getting better - and I will reach my goals in that area.

I am on the path of prosperity in every sense: physical, mental, spiritual, intellectual, financial, and material. My goal is to live a happy and fulfilling life. I’m working each day in every sense to reach that Goal.

Even though my age I still say that I wouldn’t change anything, it is what it is, and we can still get better at everything.

5) How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?

I give an important space to resting in my daily life. I try to sleep at least 7 hours at night.

Fortunately, I have never suffered any serious injury or illness.

Stretching, Flexibility and Mobility exercises are vital in my everyday Training and Go WOD Mobility First app is key daily. Now more than ever is a very important way to keep my joints and muscles healthy. As I’m used to train hard, I take some Active Recovery days to come back stronger.

For my recovery I consume some supplements such as Chondroitin, Glucosamine and Collagen daily.

6) How is your diet and what supplements do you use?

As a Fitness Fan I track my Training, my performance, my sleeping time, what I eat, everything! As I train and try to live as an Athlete, I consider essential to use a fitness watch and have done so for years. My own now is a Polar Vantage M watch. As a CrossFit Athlete I track my CrossFit sessions with the Beyond the Whiteboard 8Btwb) app and WODProof app, my Mobility with GoWOD Mobility First app. I also have a constant record of my weight through the Tanita scale that monitors the body composition: body fat percentage, body water, muscle mass, visceral fat, daily caloric intake, metabolic age, and bone mass level.

I don’t really do diet, I seldom do Fasting, I believe that a good and balanced nutrition is something basic on my daily life. I’ve basically eaten the same foods for most of my life: the European and Argentine food and felt in love with Mexican food too.

I keep the same nutrition almost during the whole year.

I don’t count calories as I found it difficult but know what kind of food better suits me. I try to avoid unhealthy food but once a week I break all the rules of food. It is my day off. It is important to do it without guilt.

Regarding social occasions the fact is simple if I like the food or suits me good I have it but try to avoid those that is not of my taste.

I have coffee daily as I love the expresso machine but do it with no sugar.

I sometimes have some alcohol, mainly on weekends, but have them with care. As many other things I like to enjoy them but don’t like to have it frequently and don’t want it to affect my performance.

Due to my Fitness activity, I daily consume supplements, being Muscle Pharm my preferred brand:

Muscle Pharm Assault PreWorkout
Muscle Pharm BCAA Protein
SportFeed Whey Protein Powder
Beta Alanine
Omega 3.6 & 9
Glucosamine and Chondroitin
Multivitamins and Minerals

7) What has inspired and motivated you?

Sylvester Stallone have always been my inspiration for Fitness.

In 2018 I met CrossFit, both amateur level and the huge super athletes of the CrossFit Games such as Rich Fronning, Mat Fraser, Josh Bridges, Ben Smith, Cole Sager, Jacob Heppner, Dan Bailey, Sara Sigmundsdottir, Annie Torisdottir, Tia-Clair Toomey, Katrin Davidsdottir, Kara Webb Saunders, Sam Briggs and Camile Leblanc-Bazinet among others. I was very excited about the concept and variety of CrossFit, I felt in love with this activity, I began to apply it and now is a fundamental part of my Training and in the way I train my trainees.

I love all those guys and also admired Steve Reeves – another natural Fitness model, Jason Statham, Mike Wahlberg, Will Smith, Vin Diesel, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Chris Hemsworth, Henry Cavill, many of this actors are in their fifties, that work hard on their bodies for their roles and embraced that also as a way of life to keep fit and healthy.

8) Advice for other people who want to improve themselves.

Being Fitness a way of Life for me, whether you seek to lose weight, improve your appearance or your physical condition, Fitness is the best choice you can make for your body, your mind, and your life. Training yourself to its extent generates endorphin, serotonin and dopamine that allow you to enjoy and be more effective in every sense, prolong and improve your life quality. In this site my main desire is to share with you a passion and how Fitness can positively affect all aspects of your life from setting goals and succeed.

Take note of the ingredients to achieve the body you deserve: Time, Effort, Discipline and Dedication. All of them are not magic words and are inside of you.

As a Personal Trainer and Marketing guy I found that regarding Fitness people is always expecting the magic pill that can make them fittest the easy way. The truth is that magic pill doesn’t exist and the proper way to be fittest resides within you.

My 12 Recommendations:

My 12 recommendations

The best exercise machine to improve your Fitness is your mind and its base is perseverance.
Fitness is not built by exercise alone! In fact a greater part of optimizing your health and well-being rests on eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water, and having adequate rest (7-8 hours), not just to have a summer-ready beach body, but to improve the entirety of your health.
If you are going to begin a Fitness program, it is mandatory that you first take a medical checkup and a stress test in order to measure your health and avoid potential problems in the future.
You must always start your workouts with warm-up/stretch exercises and close your session with stretch/cool-down exercises. These help to reduce the risk of injury, to improve your athletic performance, and to provide more flexibility to your body, as well as helping to counter the stiffening of the body that comes with age.
You can’t achieve the body of your dreams in just a few weeks (that's impossible), but you can improve your appearance and athletic ability gradually, day by day and with a plan. Set your short, medium, and long-term goals and evaluate them over time. Adjust your training program accordingly and you really will look and feel better.
Age is Just a number. The best Training to keep you young, maintain a great body, and keep you absolutely healthy, is one that combines Weight Training, Cardio (HIIT and Low Intensity) and Stretching with good nutrition and rest.
Your training is an integral part of your life, just as work, food, and rest, and you must give it all its due importance.
Train smart and focus more on quality than quantity (whether that be time, intensity, the number of repetitions, or the load). More is not better.
Muscles have memory and the best way to speed up your metabolism and optimize your effort is by keeping them guessing, changing the types of exercises you do, the order in which you make them, the pace, tempo, the days and the hours that you train. Varying and combining different workout methods makes our body more effective and efficient. It prevents the body's natural tendency to resist further fitness improvement, since muscles quickly adapt to repeated and predictable stress-loads.
Control your weight and measure your body fat level in order to monitor your body evolution and track your development.
Dress properly when exercising, no matter if it's at home or at the gym, since the idea is that you look and feel better.
Play the music in your training that motivates you the most -- that makes you move: Enjoy yourself!

Finally a very special comment:

Life is wonderful. If you drink alcohol, do it in moderation, and avoid cigarettes and drugs. The best stimulant is the one inside you - let it out and enjoy it!

9) Are you taking on clients right now?

Since I was 25 years old when I started training myself more strongly, people have always asked me to prepare them a workout or even to train them, which I've done for free but from 2012. I have formally worked as a Personal Trainer, primarily at individual level and having trained a variety of trainees' profiles from kids, young people, adults, middle age and overweight people to advanced martial artists.

I have specialized on Adult Training, and I really know the way to train them in a proper way and keep their motivation.

As a Personal Trainer and Health Coach I offer comprehensive advice on nutrition and Fitness services.

I offer one - on - one (partner training) and small - group (from 3 to 5 people) training sessions to have a personalized supervision of each client according to their health, to meet their fitness needs and monitor their evolution and group training sessions. I make these classes in your home, at your gym and the last two years mainly Online Training.

The type of training that I propose is to train one at least 3 times a week, where each day you do a different workout in: Strength conditioning with your own body weight and/or with weights, High Intensity Cardio Training, Abdominals and Core Training, CrossFit-based training, Functional Training, Mixed Martial Arts-based conditioning and Flexibility and Mobility Training, which makes it fun and varied and where the aim is improve your fitness and activate your metabolism. In addition to being your Personal Trainer I am your Health Coach carrying a record of your body evolution, where I give you advise in your Nutrition and guide you towards a healthier life.

My saying: Train with Passion and Persistence, enjoy and reach your goals!

Take note of the ingredients to achieve the body you deserve: Time, Effort, Discipline and Dedication. All of them are not magic words and are inside of you.

I'm really convinced that Fitness is a true Fountain of Youth. But to do this you must inevitably respect the 3 fundamentals of Fitness: healthy and balanced Nutrition, adequate rest and intelligent training based on: Weight Training, Cardio and Flexibility and Mobility exercises. If some of these fundamentals are not met, you will not achieve the objective set.

Remember that to reach your goal you must first climb step by step.

"Being your Personal Trainer and Health Coach I can guide you in a Training Program that will help you feel healthier, look better, more alive and exceed your goals."

My trainees see the results very quickly, the first sign is within the first month is the muscle tone, then the increase of their cardiovascular capacity and a reduction in their body fat, if they follow my recommendations regarding smart training, rest and nutrition.

The most common question I’m asked is the way people can reduce their body fat and lo show the six pack, if doing abs work, they can reach that goal. My response is always: the six pack is already there but to reduce fat the key is to reduce that fat that is covering them and that should be a done fundamentally with a proper nutrition, with an adequate rest and a un full training comprising: Cardio, Weight Training and Flexibility.