“Javier Malave has been a competitive tennis player, a singer, a golfer and a healthcare professional. He has been actively building muscle and losing weight for the past several months; a lifelong athlete who is prioritizing health and fitness each day.
Know where he hasn’t been? Definitely not at a gym.
“I’ve belonged to a gym before,” the 51-year-old says colloquially. “I hate gyms. With a passion. I hate having to get in the car and go somewhere else to work out.”
Speaking about his experience since starting to train with the Kairos Wellness Experience (KWE), Javier gives value not only to the virtual training sessions, but also to the personalized workout plan and built-in injury prevention.
“I have had the experience before of joining a gym and starting to do some weightlifting, particularly with machines, and getting hurt,” Malave says. “So I said to [Al], I want you to design a workout program that I can do at home with weights, and I want you to teach me how to do them, because I don’t want to get hurt.”
Since starting his training, Javier follows Al’s workout every day, becoming familiarized with the exercises and dedicated to the routine.
“I can do it on my own without hurting myself, and follow the discipline.”
‘This is where I am’
Malave, an active golfer who played competitive tennis until 1997, is no stranger to the modern athlete’s habits. As his life began to change, though, including grad school, marriage and the birth of his daughter, so did his priority for health and fitness.
“I always had a big appetite,” he remembers. “You know, you have the athlete appetite, but you don't do the athlete exercise, the weight starts piling on. By 2001, I had ballooned to about 285 pounds.”
In early 2023, Javier made a few lifestyle changes to improve his personal health — a new medicine, dietary changes and incorporating cardio into his daily routine. After taking these first few steps on his own, Javier reached out to his childhood buddy Alfonso about his new business, KWE.
“I knew that [Al] had been doing this for a while now,” Malave recalls. “He made a complete 180 in terms of what his career path was, and I found that interesting. I sent him a message; I said, ‘Hey, Fonso, I’m doing this. This is where I am. And I might need your help.’
And he goes, ‘Dude, I’ve been watching you. I know.’”
As their journey progressed, Javier noticed big results from the little wins. His weight started to drop, and his strength and muscle tone began to increase at a huge rate.
“We worked for ten weeks together, eight sessions,” Javier says. “I dropped another twelve pounds in that time frame, but what was very significant was that things I couldn’t do, I started doing with ease.”
“For example,” Malave continues, “the first time he and I had a workout, he wanted me to hold a plank. And first he had to teach me what a plank was. My plank lasted about five ugly seconds. The other day, I tagged [Al] on a video that I loaded to Facebook where I did a 70-second plank with ease. After doing eight sessions with him, I can hold a plank for more than a minute, like it’s nothing, and do it after two or three sets of exercise.”
And butterfly crunches? “I couldn’t do more than four,” he remembers. “I can do five sets of 25 right now, not even breaking a sweat.”
Since starting his training, Javier has dropped 47 pounds, and seven inches off his waist measurement.
Scales in the closet
In addition to his tremendous progress within his Kairos workouts, Javier’s golf game has improved from the increase in flexibility and heightened endurance. Al’s breath control work reinforced lessons he’d learned about diaphragm breathing from his singing days, and he’s noticing a physical change, too: “I’ve dropped two pants sizes.”
Two of the strongest motivators for Javier are Al’s positive attitude and the accountability inherent in the workout process — working out with someone in real time, for one, but also the dedication to routine and inspiration to meet yourself where you’re at.
“You can have a scale,” Javier says, “but if it never comes out of the closet and you don’t weigh yourself, you’re not aware of where you are. I’ve lived that life.”
It’s also the personalized plan that keeps him accountable to himself.
“The workout was tailored to me, and to what I wanted,” he muses. “I’m a golfer, I’m a tennis player, I want to be stronger, I want to be flexible, I want to lose weight…
I think tailoring the program that way made a big difference, and a lot easier to stick to. You start feeling animated, you start feeling motivated to do it, because you’re seeing progress.”
Javier brings his own dedication and positivity to each new day and each new exercise. He starts the day with true excitement to complete Al’s routine, and it shows in the smallest details:
“I made his workout the wallpaper on my phone.”
###
Comentarios