Teen at peak fitness level enhances others’ lives
Gavin Yunes pounds the weights. Photos submitted
By Tom Victoria
Although Gavin Yunes possesses Herculean strength and an impressive physique to match, he strives to achieve even loftier heights.
“As a human, you're not gonna accept where you're at, ever,” he said. “You're never gonna be satisfied. However good you look, however strong you are, however much money you're gonna make, you're gonna get that tangible thing and just say I want more. It doesn't matter how far and out of the realm of the possibility something seems.”
The fitness coach and content creator won’t rest on his laurels.
“Once you get that thing and you have it for a little bit of time, that's just so regular,” he said. “Yes, I look better than 99 percent of the population, but that's not what it's about to me. It's all about feeling a certain way. I want to continue to have more energy and more confidence and be able to inspire more people time after time after time. I can never stay in the same spot because I don't feel comfortable there.”
Gavin, 18, of Massachusetts explained what a person needs to develop an impressive body and a high level of strength.
“When it comes to gaining a physique and getting this discipline in this mindset, it really just comes down to having a deep reasoning behind what you're doing,” he said. “If you're going into this and you're just saying to yourself I want to build a little bit of muscle, I want to feel a certain way and perform a certain way, it's not really going to happen.”
Gavin said it’s vital to have a meaningful purpose behind self-improvement.
“When you really have the biggest results that I see with people and myself are the people who have really deep reasoning behind what they're doing,” he said. “They have the most insecurity. They want to inspire other people. They want to help other people so bad to the point to where there's no other option than to just go all into yourself. Having a deep reasoning behind what you're doing is the most important thing.”
Gavin has been helping others since he was 17.
“I do one-on-one online fitness coaching,” he said. “I hop on Zoom calls, fully custom programming. I can provide a workout program. I can provide meals and everything like that. I don't believe in a specific breakfast, lunch, dinner specifically. When it comes to working one-on-one with somebody, you want to elevate their physique, you want to make them look better.”
Gavin focuses on instilling a proper frame of mind.
“It's building discipline, having this mindset to where you have the energy all day to do the things that you necessarily don't want to do right now, but you know that you need to achieve for the future,” he said. “The reason why somebody is where they're at, whether it's overweight, whether it's skinny, it's because of their habits. A direct representation of what goes on in somebody's mind is a direct representation of how they look.”
Gavin conducts a group session.
Gavin said people often spend time in nonproductive ways.
“If somebody is giving in to their short-term dopamine levels, they're scrolling all the time, they're playing video games, they're not going to have this level of physique and mindset because they're not constantly working towards their goals,” he said. “That's not to say you can only build a physique without playing video games and without scrolling. But it's just to say those things are only going to draw you more away from really where you're trying to go.”
Gavin teaches people to stick to a good routine.
“One of the biggest things that I focus on with my guys is not only developing the physique and looking a certain way, but feeling a certain way at the same time,” he said. “The reason why you want to look the certain way is to feel the certain way, so that is what I focus on: the habits. Because if you can say I am going to do these things, I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to eat healthier, I'm going to get my steps in and you go through with all of those things, that is going to make you feel amazing.”
Gavin has focused on fitness for several years.
“I've been working out for consistently about four years now,” he said. “In and out of the gym for about five or six.”
A sports injury caused Gavin to improve his fitness.
“When I was 14, it's a normal hockey game,” he said. “I was on the ice and I was coming across. I was about to pass a puck to somebody else. It was a completely normal game. I passed the puck to somebody and then somebody else comes the other way and hits me right on the shoulder, a big collision right in my clavicle here, which is basically your collarbone. Smash. I was flat out on the ice, completely incapable of doing anything.”
The injury left Gavin feeling vulnerable.
“I went to the urgent care,” he said. “I could barely walk and barely feel conscious. It took three months to heal. I had never felt so insecure. I had never felt so weak in my whole life. I'm 14. I want to play a bunch of sports with my friends. I want to go scooter, skateboard or whatever. I could only use my hands for video games. That put me in a really, really bad state mentally because I'm the type of person that constantly needs to be working on myself every single day or I feel very, very insecure even to this day.”
Gavin didn’t want to ever feel weak again.
“I felt so insecure,” he said. “It was banging me in the head every single day. Gavin, you need to change. Gavin, you can't be 120 pounds at 6-foot-1. This isn't how a human is supposed to feel. There is no other option than for me to become the best version of myself so I can never feel the same way that I had before.”
Gavin now helps others change their lives because of how he reaped the benefits of self-improvement.
“It doesn't matter what relationship you're in, how much money you have, where you're at in life, you can look better, you can feel better,” he said. “I had such a change with fitness on my life. I went from 120 pounds at 6 foot 1, barely being able to bench the barbell for a couple reps, getting called all sorts of names, being not good at sports because I was too small. It's not normal for an 18-year-old to talk the way I do, to post the way I do, to show myself the way I do. The only reason why I'm able to speak like this, while I'm able to coach people who are over triple my age, it's because I worked on myself.”
Gavin said guiding others is a fulfilling role.
“I want to make a living out of something that I can genuinely wake up and be excited to do every single day,” he said.
Gavin said the wrong approach to coaching is not adapting to the client.
“There's never going to be a one size fits all,” he said. “When you're working with somebody like myself, you're working with me. So that I am reminding you, so that I am saying, did you do this? I'm putting you in a group of like-minded individuals now. There's never going to be a one size fits all, let me give you this the same as everybody else. See you later.”
Gavin never wants to stop improving.
“My long-range goal is to become a better version of myself,” he said. “I can't settle for where I'm at right now. I am doing very well for myself at 18 years old. I just want to be better. I want to do more. I can't accept where I'm at. I want to be able to provide for my family when I'm older. I want to be able to have an impact on my current family and everybody in my life. I want to be more disciplined and have a stronger mindset to be able to do these things every single day. I can't stay where I'm at.”
Gavin hits the links.
Gavin stressed the fitter folks are at a younger age, the better off they will be in the long run.
“Why wouldn't you want to be fit?” he asked rhetorically. “Everybody knows that, but everybody needs that reminder. Why are you wasting your time if you're not working towards things, if you're not investing in yourself constantly? You can go in and out of fitness all the time. People do it all the time. They come back at January 1, they come back at the summer. Fitness is such a key importance of everybody's life, that if you quit, you're gonna come back whether you like it or not. And whether that's a couple weeks, whether it's a couple months, whether it's a few years, whether it's 10 years, you are going to come back to it just because of how much a necessity it is in everybody's life.”
Gavin stressed the importance of a healthy diet.
“I just don't see the point in giving into those short-term dopamine, the Oreos and whatnot,” he said. “I don't see the point. If you know it's going to hurt you, if you know you're going to feel worse, if you know it's disadvantageous for your health, why do it? You can make other food taste good. Food really shouldn't be this big dopamine happy oh my god, we're about to go for food. That's not exactly what it's supposed to be like. It should just be for fuel and to make you have incredible mental clarity. I have never had such mental clarity. I've never had such a little amount of brain fog and constant energy and confidence. One hundred percent, it's down to my diet.”
Gavin has incentive to keep improving.
“What keeps me motivated is I want to build a future to provide for everyone around me,” he said. “If I don't keep my physical and mental health in check, I can't provide to my greatest ability, and I'm just another average in the masses. I want to be different, and I want to be special. Not so anybody thinks higher of me, but because I want to do it for myself and my future.”
Gavni dispensed advice to those who want to start a fitness journey.
“My advice for people who haven't worked out before is to start with something that you can stay consistent with,” he said. “There's no point in even starting something that's going to fail miserably. But at the same time, how will you ever know if you don't try? So you have to take the jump, but make sure you can stay consistent with it.”
Gavin said fitness coaches must motivate others.
“If you want to be a fitness coach, you have to be somebody that's inspirational,” he said. “You have to be somebody that can be looked up to. Other than that, the advice that I would give is just how bad do you want it? It's about waking up every single day loving what I do, changing lives, being able to make an impact in other people's lives. It's not about how you look and how strong you are, it's about how you carry yourself and it's about how you changed yourself with your fitness.”
Gavin said it’s essential to weather the rough times.
“Whether it's fitness, whether it's business, whatever it is, there's going to be ups and downs every single day,” he said. “That's what I love about it so much. Some days are amazing. You feel like doing everything. You're getting after it, you're achieving your goals. Some days, it sucks and it's a matter of going through those days that suck. When you can overcome those things, you're developing yourself as a person because the depth of your struggle, it determines the height of your success.”
Gavin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gavinyunes/
Gavin’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@gavinyunes
