Today we have a special guest interview with one of my best friends Sergio Merino.  Sergio is a strength coach, personal trainer, amateur bodybuilder and all around nutritional guru.

1.) For those who don’t know you Sergio, explain how you got lead into the field of fitness and nutrition.

I was your typical fat kid who happened to be strolling down the grocery isles looking for his favorite breakfast cereal when i happened upon my first FLEX magazine with my favorite actor, Arnold. Once I opened up the pages I was blown away by the physiques. I couldn’t get enough of it. I must have tried damn near every routine they put in there. I never tried any of their diets though; guess I was smart enough from the start to figure that out on my own. I lost nearly 30 pounds and all the girls took notice (which was the whole goal, i mean who does this for health and to feel better?) From there I turned my passion for bodybuilding into a passion for athletics. I always wanted to play football but I was slightly delusional, I actually tried out for the football team. I ran a pretty decent 5 flat 40 @ 147, pressed and squatted a decent amount of weight, only problem was I decided to try out for tight end. I thought I was the next tony gonzalez but i was more like elian.

My failure in football led me to lacrosse where I found good use for my size and speed as a midfielder. I got cut my senior year after training my butt off on the elliptical all season (specificity of training makes a lot of sense now). Luckily though, I loved the sport so much, i asked to be a volunteer coach for the team. These guys were like brothers to me and I wanted to help the young guys grow. I was never the selfish bitter type. If I could find a way to help in any capacity I did it. You can kind of start to see how my life has led me to where I am currently at.

Fast forward to freshman year and I fell victim to the dreaded freshman 15…. twice. I gained 30 lbs over my freshman year and I was pretty pissed with myself.

By the spring semester I decided I needed to change, once again, but what would be my purpose this time around. This is where natural bodybuilding came into the mix. I contacted Layne Norton to assist me with my prep and I designed possibly the worst training program ever and dieted all the way down to 130 lbs, i was as lean as I have ever been and didn’t look 130, but I definitely need to add some mass. I placed 2nd in my teen class (yay for muscular fat people who think they’re swole and got cuts), 4th in my novice class (out of 5), and 6th in my open class (out of 6). Regardless of how I placed, the feeling was awesome and cheesecake never tasted better than it did that afternoon.

During this time I knew I wanted to be in the fitness industry as a personal trainer. My junior year of college is when I learned that there was such a thing as a strength coach. I did an internship at Quinnipiac University with Brijesh Patel, the most intimidating 5’1 strength coach you will ever meet and went from thinking upright rows were good for your medial deltoids to integrating joint mobes, activation, bad mouthing back squats, and getting collegiate athletes fired up.

Now I’m personal training at a private facility, Results Plus, in my hometown of Hamden and helping people move better, get stronger, and reach their goals.

2.) Now I know your preparing for 3 bodybuilding shows in the near future in hopes of earning your Pro Card, Have you changed anything this time around as far as diet or training from your previous shows?

Training is pretty similar, traditional 4 day body part split, pretty moderate volume. I like to apply my own percentages to the rep range I am aiming for based of my 1rm for a given exercises. I see too many bodybuilders end up with bum shoulders, bad knees, bad low backs. You just can’t go 100% all the time and not expect something to wrong. Diet has been very different this time around, still doing a carb cycle of high-low days, with protein and fats being consistent throughout, but I’m not restricting food choices. If it fits my macros, I eat it.

This time around if that M&M fits Sergio’s macros he’d eat the whole thing.

3.) Awesome, I love the simplicity of your nutrition and not killing yourself with all kinds of crazy diet programming.  After spending so much time up at QU with Brijesh and really enjoying the functional aspect of training how do you incorporate that with your everyday clients who are looking for purely aesthetic changes?

I try to teach them that looking good without being functional is like having a brand new 2011 Mercedes with a bad engine. Yeah it looks amazing, but when asked to do something, it doesn’t perform very well. You got to have balance. You have to have mobility and stability at the proper joints in order to maximize your gains whether they are for strength or hypertrophy. You have to get them to understand that exercises are not a one size fits all and just because it was in FLEX magazine doesn’t mean its the key to 24 inch biceps in 24 days.

4.) I like the analogy, it is often tough to get people thinking outside of what they have herd all their lives about training and not taking care of there bodies. What do you feel is the most overrated aspect in training, something that you see almost every client miss daily?

I freaking hate how every client judges a work out based on whether they did crunches or not. With all the research and findings that Dr. Stuart McGill has done I don’t understand how trainers and people still believe they are good for you. (ATT: If your a trainer and still believe that flexion is good for you, punch yourself in the face and stop reading this interview now) Core training correctly seriously has to be the most misconceived aspect of training.

Sergio thinks your pretty awesome if you don’t do crunches.

5.) Thanks for your time Serg, I wish you the best with your diet and training, were all expecting big things from you in the near future!  How can people follow your progress to the top of bodybuilding ranks and reach you?

You can follow at me at quite a few places. On Twitter @ CTStrengthCoach, through my training log @ http://www.usplabsdirect.com/forum/stacks-logs/4992-usplabs-athlete-contest-prep-2010-2011-a.html, and be sure to check out my articles section on bodybuilding.com @ http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sergio_merino.htm which will be updated much more frequently in the next few weeks