Samuele Fanti Personal Trainer

Samuele is an Italian personal trainer who has a passion for fitness. He talks to Sundried about life in the fitness industry.

Please tell us about sporting events you have taken part in or have coming up. 

In recent years I have taken part in several really fun sporting events. In my city, Bologna, in the summer there are organised charity sporting events, such as the half marathon or the “10 Colli”, a bicycle race that crosses 10 hills close to the city. I like to participate in charity events as it's not too competitive and you compete for fun.

Tell us about your journey to fitness? Where did it all start?

I got into fitness thanks to the sport I love most: tennis. When I was 13, I was a promising young tennis player, I loved to train in the summer under the sun and sweat to improve my physical condition. I also helped my coach to train younger children, making them do coordination exercises and improve their performance.

Since then, a passion for fitness and athletic performance was born and I still cultivate with my profession of personal trainer and physical trainer.

What are your training goals now?

Today my goals are to improve my strength and my endurance. I really like working out with weights in the gym or outdoors with running or cycling, together with my wife and son.

Tell us one unusual fact we wouldn’t know about you:

I was 26 when I asked my wife to marry me. That year we decided to take a trip to Israel and I decided to ask her once we arrived in Jerusalem, looking for the right location. Everything was going well, but the day we were due to get to Jerusalem we were forced to change plans due to a traffic accident with the bus we were on. When we left on the bus it was already evening, there was a beautiful sunset, so I decided to ask her right there, on the bus! Fortunately the answer was a big "yes" and all our travel companions cheered loudly. It was an unusual but truly unforgettable proposal.

What advice do you wish you'd been given when you first started out?

At the beginning of my personal training career, I would have liked someone to have told me to have courage and to be more enterprising, to improve my personal leadership so as to be a guide, as well as a coach, for the people who turned to me for advice.

Do you follow a specific nutrition plan? If so, what/when do you eat?

I usually eat 5 meals a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks. Fortunately, I have no allergies or intolerances, so I can eat what I want, respecting my daily calorie needs (about 3000Kcal). I love cooking simple but tasty dishes, especially with vegetables, eggs and fish. I eat little meat, especially chicken and turkey, but always in combination with steamed vegetables, cereals or legumes.

I like to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables, because they are the richest in vitamins and minerals and respect what nature gives us.

What do you do to keep your clients motivated? Do you have any top tips to keep motivated?

To keep my clients motivated I like to link their training to everyday life. It is useful to know that what you do when you train can serve you in daily life, in the family, at work or in the study. I like to connect fun to physical work in the gym, so as to keep even the laziest customers motivated.

With athletes I work a lot with their imagination, making them concentrate on the focus of physical performance, creating mental images or sentences to be repeated at the moment of performance.

Talk us through your training regime.

My training regime is inspired by high intensity interval training (HIIT). I believe that this training mode is the best way to reach fitness and to develop strength and endurance having fun. With the athletes I follow a detailed training plan, combining technical development with physical condition improvement, based on their discipline and their season time

How do you keep your fitness knowledge up to date?

I like to stay updated, especially on what concerns performance and training planning. Every year I participate in federal refresher courses (FIT - Italian Tennis Federation) for conditioning in tennis and in strength training courses (AIF - Strength Italian Academy). I also follow several Youtube channels and Facebook pages of scientific training on sport and physical preparation.

What are your top 3 trainer tips?

1. Stay focused on the "why" you are doing it
2. Train like it's the last workout of your life
3. Find the best way to have fun while you train, it will be easier to stay fit

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I am a great peanut butter fan, I like to eat it especially for breakfast or as a snack, but I could eat it all the time.

What do you like about Sundried and what's your favourite bit of our kit?

I like Sundried's ecological spirit for sport, a spirit that respects nature and promotes ethical training. My favourite Sundried accessories are the wooden gym rings, which I use with my clients and for my personal workouts too. I really enjoy training with wooden gym rings!