How Charles Lloyd Fitness Can Help You.

  • If you want to get in shape and stay in shape. I can help you.
  • If you just bought a new workout program and really want real people telling you what you should and shouldn’t be doing. I can help you.
What I do.
  1. I have been in the fitness “game” for 14 years either by myself just learning or helping others. If it has to do with fitness or nutrition there I have probably bought it or wasted my money on it, or still own it.
  2. Working as a trainer, I know that this fitness and nutrition thing has very little to do with actually working out or cutting carbs. Fitness and nutrition has almost everything to do with understanding the psychology of why you do what you do. If that is not working for you how I can help you change it.
  3. I break down hard tasks into easy tasks, that have proven results to help you get in shape and stay in shape.
  4. I am not here to be your friend, I am here to be your coach, I will give it to you straight. If you are looking for a friend go elsewhere. If you are looking for something or someone to sugar-coated “it” you are going to be disappointed. I will be nice….sometimes:P but I am dead serious about helping you, and in my 15+ years experience as a trainer, 99% of the people I help really only need a kick in the butt.
Sound like something you are interested in? Good put your email address in the box below and I will send you updates.

 

 

What other people have to say about Charles Lloyd Fitness

Thank you, Charles!

You are one of FEW fitness specialists who pay attention of the importance of pH!! – EWU

I just want you to know that I love and appreciate your insanity workout video reviews. Thanks for writing them. – Sandy

I’m so stoked you’ve taken the time to right all these reviews on Insanity. I just started the DVD series and I’ve started checking out the reviews here before launching in to that day’s work out. It helps motivate me. – Rya

 

About Charles Lloyd

Who, after graduating from high school and after only 1 semester of junior college, decided to join the U.S. Navy, to improve his life and change the path he was going down – hanging out all night with friends, stealing, playing video games, and all the normal nuisances of an 18-year-old.

Growing up

Growing up in the Lloyd household, you either did something with yourself or got the hell out of the house: no ifs, ands or buts about it. So, on one fateful family summer vacation to Santa Cruz, California, my dad and I were walking on the beach when he asked me what I was going to do with my life now that I had graduated. When the random, half-joking suggestion of joining the military came-up, I kind of blew him off saying “Naw, im good, I ain’t joining the military,” but the thought lingered in my mind.

After we returned home, I kind of blew off the idea and never really thought about it until one day, when I was home alone, an Army recruiter called me. After a few conversations with him, and unbeknownst to my parents, I was scheduled to take the military ASVAB test on a Saturday.

Just sign right here, and here, and initial here, and here.

So early one Saturday morning, while the family and I we were having breakfast in the kitchen, (and you can see the street from the kitchen nook) the Army recruiter pulled up. While in mid-flight across the kitchen I said “Oh yeah, my Army recruiter is here, and I’m going to take the ASVAB test today, kthxbye”! And was quickly out the door before they had a chance to even realize what was happening. I could almost feel the shock and tension (like a $200 increase in your car insurance) building behind me as I exited, stage left.

Upon my return just a few short hours later, who were oh so conveniently waiting for me but my highly shell-shocked parents. Hey, by then, it was too late. I had made up my mind and I was gone. I was 18 years old and was tired of living at home anyway, so nothing they could have said would have changed my mind. I mean seriously, I hated school and I wasn’t really doing anything anyway. It was time for me to go.

Chicago in the Winter. . . Hooray?

Months later, I actually ended up joining the Navy. I went to boot camp in Chicago/Great Lakes, Il in the middle of winter (Honestly I didn’t believe it could possibly get that cold, my freezer never even got that cold :-\ ). I survived that, got into my specialty school of Communications in San Diego and end up getting stationed in Japan.

Military Life and “Growing up” some more.

Military life sucked even more than boot camp and I spent my first 4 years in Nagasaki on the southern island of Japan. In 1997, just as I was getting ready to get out of the military, my girlfriend at the time announced she was pregnant (What do you say to that?!?)!

Not wanting to just up and leave my new family, I extended in the military for another 3 years. I still couldn’t stand the military, but time went by, I married my girlfriend, and filled my time by studying self-help books, such as business and making money and health and fitness. At that time, I was just hell bent on making as much money as possible as soon as I left the military, and decided I needed to be in sales in some way, shape or form.

Starting my first business, and going broke.

When I finally got out of the military, I started my first business in Insurance. I made a lot of money and lost a lot of money . . It truly was a story of famine to feast to famine. Eventually, because of some bad business decisions on my part, I lost practically everything I had and was on the verge of bankruptcy. (In retrospect, it was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me. I learned quite a bit about myself, money and life.) To top it all off, the madness increased when my wife announced that she was pregnant . . Again! Talk about timing, eh?

So, still financially broke, I moved out of my apartment and into my parents’ house. Months pass, I find a job, actually one of my best friends (Vashawn Jackson) growing up hooked me up with a job at a health care firm where he was working. I get insurance for my wife and child at the time and in 2003 my daughter was born. At the time, without any real prospects to make money, I had the idea that maybe I needed to leave and go back to Japan for work. So after my wife gave birth to our daughter (Maya), we began “Operation Sell All Our Crap on EBay” and get the hell out of Dodge. We end up raising a few thousand dollars and buy our tickets to Japan. So the only thing left to get rid of was my Honda Civic which would be easy here in California. . .Yeah right! So easy that three weeks before we leave, on a beautiful Sunday morning, my car gets stolen, baby seat and all right in the back! Now I’m thinking to myself, why in the heck is all this happening to me, it’s almost like when it rain it pours.

About – Charles Lloyd

Back to square one. . . In a foreign land.

Eventually, we left the country and live with my wife’s parents in Japan. At first it was fine, then money got tight, then it got even tighter. At the time, all I was working were part time English Teaching Jobs, which were actually quite easy to get if you had a visa. The money was OK, but you really had to budget because it’s very temporary work. This was all weighing on me very heavily. During that time, I made friends with a guy from England named (Tony Richards) who was also teaching English in Japan and whose life long dream was to move to Japan. We instantaneously became best friends just by the way we both think – its one of those situations where you just meet someone for the first time and its like your already best friends (this was quite significant for me because it has only happened to me 3x in my 33 years of living). We ended up have a really good conversation at TGIF (Yeah the restaurant) in Roppongi (A night club/business/Yakuza district in the heart of Tokyo). This was about February of 2004.

So life continues as usual for another month or so, and I am still teaching English one particular day on a late night train ride from a corporate teaching job at Nissan (Yeah the car company, and yeah they hired me to teach Ebonics and cook fried chicken at Y3500 (~=/-$35) p/hour. . .im kidding about the Ebonics!) I decided that enough was enough, but instead of quitting my job and moving to a cave in Tibet to read ancient Mongolian water scrolls in the dark where the only light is alpaca and lama milk candles, my particular “enlightment” was – I just became thankful! I thanked God for everything, for my life, family, job (or lack thereof) problems, and I was really thankful, not just a half-ass thankful.

In that moment I realized that everything I needed I already had, in that moment I realized that you cannot have more if you’re not thankful for what you already have.. The next thing I decided was since I cannot control my outside world, I would control my inside world and my body. And vowed that by hook or by crook, that if I were going to make a difference in my family and my life, I was going to do it now – and if I didn’t, I was going to die trying. Period end of discussion. So my next step was to buy a set of weights.

Epiphany

At the time I had very little money, and the money I did have went to support my family, but I made it a priority to buy a set of weights. Buying a decent weight set in Japan then (on the cheap) was almost like finding a Koala Bear that can iron a decent necktie on Super bowl Sunday for under $100. . ..it just doesn’t exist. . .well hardly. So I had to improvise, I was going to get a weight set…but it was going to be “el cheapo”. So I end up finding a halfway decent set of 30KG or about 65lb weight set at Donki (Don Quijote – Basically like a Big Lots with more crap in there, or any Discount Store) but that wasn’t good enough so I bought 2 sets for about Y6000 (~$60) and walked both of them about a mile back to my in-laws’ house where I was living. I plunked the weights down in their garage and dug out my old Bill Phillips Body for Life Book, which was popular back in 2000/1. Right then and there, I made a commitment to workout 6 days a week, regardless of weather, time, day, tired, not tired, Hanukkah, Flag Day, Oktoberfest or anything barring me being sick in the bed, but my vow was for 6 months, because I once heard Anthony Robbins say that you need to do something daily for at least 3 months for it to “stick” and become a habit – and knowing my stubborn ass, that meant I need to do it 6 months at minimum. So off I went. . .

Doing new stuff. . .sucks?

I can tell you that it was cool the first month or so, but after that when the newness wore off, it was gut check time, and it sucked soooooo much and I wanted to quit so bad on some days (you ever felt like that?). But I stuck to my word and I still remember working out in the freezing cold in my in-laws’ garage during a rain storm on a old dirty futon on the concrete floor, and barely being able to do 10lb tricep extension with each arm. I can still mentally visualize my arm shaking trying to do it correctly, and you can only imagine what passers-by were thinking when they saw a 6’2 Black dude working out in a garage next to the family Honda minivan in the middle Yokohama, Japan (It’s right up there with the Koala Bear). I eventually made it the 6 months, quit teaching English and became a Government Contractor for the U.S. Navy in Japan, left that, moved back to California, decided to use my story of hardship to help others, Believe-Educate-Do-Succeed or BEDS one of the many acronyms I will be using here.

Since then working out, fitness, nutrition, and personal development have become my passion – not just a side hobby that I was interested in before 2004, but something that I engulf myself with daily. This web site is a collection of what I have learned about these subjects, what I continue to learn, and to remind you that “Yes you can”!

More about Charles Lloyd

Currently living in Southern California California

Likes longs walks in the park, longs for world peace, saving the butterflies and any other stereotypical garbage somebody put on their about page.

Height: ~6″2 or 3, basically past the point where I have to lie about my height.

Weight: 180lbs

Body Fat: ~9% Body Fat (as tested hydro-statically)

Nationality: American

Race: Human

Beliefs: Non-Denominational Christian, Doesn’t believe in taking prescription drugs to cure problems, in my medicine cabinet I have a bottle of Excedrin and 2 types of allergy Medicine (Generic Flonase, and some Indian salt stuff) that is the extent of drugs I take.

Believes almost anything can be cured naturally, and most health diseases/problems are caused by poor beliefs, diet/nutrition and lack of exercise.

Favorite Food: Thai, and Sara Lee Cheesecake – Classic French (You know the one in the freezer section at the grocery store that goes for $5 on sale. . .the one with the whipped topping with the crumbs on top and the oatmeal crumb crust. . .you know what im talkin bout’. . .don’t act like you don’t!. . . OK put it like this, 1 slice or 133g is 410 calories! 25g of Total Fat, 16g of Saturated Fat. . .I know this is a fitness / nutrition / P.D. web site but man it is sooooo goooo. . . I mean yeah, its decent, I eat it on my free day.)

Keyboard I type on: Logitech that I bought at Costco a few weeks ago and already has orange juice stains on it.

Favorite Exercises: Any Plyometrics Exercises.

Benefits

Benefits of reading this web site and why I am doing it: The main reason is kinda 4-fold, first I believe in paying back/forward, I have had sooo many people in my life help me that I couldn’t even begin to tell you. So the first reason is mainly to thank the people who have helped me in the past, everybody that has been in my life has helped me become who I am today, flaws and all.

Second is to let you know that I have been there, I know how bad life can suck, and I am here to encourage you…sarcastically of course, and I also know how good life can be and I am here to tell you that you’re wrong and the sky is falling and you should go build a bunker in your backyard and fill it with Cornmeal and bottled water.

Third you can learn something from almost anybody. I am going to share what I know, so eat the meat (suck on that vegans!), share, spit out the bones.

Lastly to make money. This is probably the “leastest” reason why, but it is a reason, some of my loves are Fitness, nutrition, self-development, internet surfing and making money, may as well combine what I already do anyway and monetize it.

In Honest Conclusion:

It still does suck and it still hurts even after all these years, and to be ultra-honest sometimes I feel like a rat running away from my own mortality. I have gotten somewhat use to the pain, but I have not gotten use to my “rat” syndrome. I once heard that most ultra-athletes, businessmen/women, thrill seekers and drug addicts have the same complex . . . mediocrity terrifies me, its sort of a blessing and a curse. My strength is my weakness, my weakness is my strength, and it is who I am, Charles Lloyd.