Dr. Counet: Mr. Gardellini, first of all, I want to wish you a happy 84th birthday today. I can report that indeed you have the physical and mental equivalence of a healthy man in his late forties or early fifties. Congratulations!

Carlos Gardellini: Thanks, Doc. I’m very lucky. Actually, it was back at the turn of the century when I truly discovered the secret of exercise: it’s the fountain of youth!

Dr. Counet: I have seen your holopage – what we used to call a webpage – from that era. I must point out, www.BodyByCarlos.com was certainly way ahead of its time. The beginning of this century was revolutionary for brain science. At that time, we’d known for centuries that exercise was the key to maintaining physical youth. However, it was only in the 2nd decade that we discovered that our knowledge of the brain was flawed.

Carlos Gardellini: That’s right. Back in 2014, when I started studying for my first certification in personal training, I stumbled across this very flaw. Since the time of the ancient pharaohs we had always believed that we have all the neurons we’ll ever have by age five. But we were wrong! Brain researchers were fully convinced this was so, until we were finally able to develop the necessary tools and discovered that we can grow our brains continuously. There is no reason that a person of any age cannot develop and grow adolescent brain cells – neurons – through exercise.

Dr. Counet: And this knowledge changed your life?

Carlos Gardellini: Well, yes and no. In general – with a single exception – I’ve always kept myself in pretty good shape. Why? Before the cancer-curing nanotech breakthroughs of the 2030s, cancer devastated my family. One oncologist told my uncle four decades ago, “these cancers should have killed you. They didn’t for two reasons: modern medicine and your fantastic shape, even in your eighties.” So I’ve always had the personal motivation to stay fit. And, professionally, I’ve had access to incredible NASA studies. A 40-year old can become 70+ physically after just several months in space. Decades of data on earth shows that a 70-year-old has a 1-in-2 chance of breaking a hip, and a 1-in-5 chance of dying, after just a simple fall. NASA’s conclusion? Exercise and trick a body in its seventies into becoming decades younger.

Dr. Counet: What was that exception?

Carlos Gardellini: Back in 2008 I appeared in a multiple-award-winning documentary, Orphans of Apollo, which chronicled a project I worked on at the turn of the century. It scared me, seeing two vastly different versions of myself on the big screen, just seven years apart. Old friends didn’t recognize the present – fat – Gardellini! New friends didn’t recognize the younger – fit – Gardellini! Stress, age, aches, pains and laziness had taken their toll. So I set myself a goal: I’d use all my hi-tech knowledge to develop the world’s most efficient-and-safe training program. And in 2011, at the age of 50, I returned to the Haley’s Comet Marathon I’d run at 25, and beat my own time from 1986. I ran 12 minutes faster and have never looked back. All my training and life-extension tricks have been on BodyByCarlos.com for decades.

Dr. Counet: Is that what made you decide to become a Private Trainer (PT) in middle-age?

Carlos Gardellini: Only partly. The real blame lies with Mr. Lucas Kohlberg, who was the boss at the World Class Fitness Center in Brussels. Lucas had known me since my Fat Gardellini days, when I first started working out there with my own PT, Mr. Lynx Teta-Delozege Tepatondele. In early 2014, I first approached Lucas with an idea for the club to offer a version of one of my high-efficiency training regimes, “The 7-Minute Workout”. Lucas shared The Big Secret with me: worldwide there is a chronic shortage of middle-aged PTs offering specialized instruction for an increasingly older clientele. It was Lucas, with substantial encouragement from Lynx, who convinced me to get fully certified as a full-time PT and begin teaching classes and offering private training. That’s when I devoted myself to specialist training, literally offering people the mental, physical and spiritual fountain of youth. I knew it right there and then: now I get to enjoy the life of a young man, all over again! I’ve actually spent over half of my adult life getting paid to stay young and helping others to do the same thing. If that doesn’t motivate a person to get out of bed in the morning, what will?

Dr. Counet: Any current goal(s)?

Carlos Gardellini: Sure. Haley’s Comet returns in just 16 years, in 2061. How cool would it be to run a marathon underneath it again, at age 100, and beat my times at 25, 50 and 75?

My name is Julie Fairclough. Some people are curious about my origins, so I let me begin by telling you a bit about that. I was born in Canada, to a Canadian father and a Mexican mother. On my father’s side, my grandmother is Jamaican and my grandfather is English. I did most of my studies in Mexico City, where I studied Journalism and Communication Sciences. Besides the United States, where my father now has his practice, I lived in Amsterdam, where I studied script writing, and then Madrid, before coming to Brussels seven years ago.

My hobbies, like everyone’s else’s, are reading, travelling, exploring. However, sport has been a big part of my life, so much so that I decided to take it up professionally 12 years ago, working in my field and giving classes as well. I loved my work but this new occupation too. Finally, coming to Brussels gave me the opportunity to give into a 100% experience with it.

How did you spend the end of the year?

My end of the year was very exciting. I loved the warm and serene attitude of the people. The frantic joy of Christmas shopping gave the city a merry feeling. Walking through the streets I got the smell of Christmas on the markets, in the restaurants, all over the place. That gave me a seasonal dose of nostalgia, but I enjoyed every single day. I spent Christmas with my husband’s family and my sister, who came from Holland to Brussels. We were 20 people wining and dining, laughing and in short celebrating Christmas. After this, we traveled to Austria to see my dear friends in Vienna. The city was crispy with all the snow and frost, a bit ghostly and romantic at the same time. And of course we didn’t miss the chance to slide down a few slopes on our skies.

How did you know WorldClass?

My husband actually told me about the club in Diegem.

What brought you to work with WorldClass?

Right when I came to Brussels I decided that I didn’t want to start working in the same field as before. With two small children growing up, my husband and I just couldn’t be travelling as much as before. In Madrid I had been working for a radio broadcasting station and giving classes on the side, which I enjoyed enormously. So I approached WorldClass in Diegem, and they took me on for Cycling and Core. Later on I gave Power Yoga and Zumba classes. I’ve been part of WorldClass ever since, and happy to be here. What I like most about WorldClass is the staff. All my colleagues have become friends, and that makes the environment in the club engaging and cordial. I get a lot of support as well, with training and classes. I feel very fortunate to belong to WorldClass.

Do you have any advice for our members?

Doing sports is a gift to the body. Keep on training, and your body will thank you for it.