👋 Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
Hello, my name is Eduard Checo and I am currently 31 years young. I was born and raised in Washington Heights, New York City. I spend a lot of time traveling so hard to say where you can catch me at.
I currently don’t have any children…. at least that I know of.
I won the Youtube Next Trainer award in 2011. I competed in the many street workout championships, as well as judged them, and organized them.
I have been featured in Mens Health Magazine, Business Insider, Mens Fitness Magazine, NY Times, and many more publications.
I started training as a child maybe 10 years old. As I got older I took it more serious. Finally fully dedicating myself around 2008.
I fell in love with freestyle calisthenics and decided to make it a career. I started Barstarzz and from there I spread the passion to a bunch of my friends locally then eventually world wide through the power of Youtube.
My business is centered around selling products that help you learn calisthenics wether through workout programs or things like bands that help you in training assisting you through the difficult movements.
⏱ Describe a typical day of training
The more work I have the less I train.
I experiment a lot and switch it up a lot. Mainly what dictates my training schedule is how much work I have. The more work I have the less I train.
I try to get a workout in at least once a day 5 times a week. If I can get more I do. I usually try to get some cardio in the morning, really light like a jog or even a walk.
I use this time to think and run through ideas. After that I get back home, eat, do some work and get ready to train later. I usually follow a upper/lower split not counting skill sets.
My workout would look something like:
- Warm Up
- Skill Training
- Upper Body Workout or Lower Body Workout
The skill training is defined as working a particular skill typically with long rests in-between attempts. The workout portion is me doing basic calisthenics exercises for volume load.
I love training with friends but rarely get the chance. About once a week though on Saturdays I do meet up with my friends for a park session.
If I am trying to cut its mostly tracking calories. My fitness pal does a great job with this. Although I am not strict about my weight or the way I look through out the year. I obsessed over it for a long time and I am past that at my age.
My training bag contains ankle weights, and 2 light resistance bands for warming up. The ankle weights are great for skill training. Training with them on gives you a huge boost. When you finally take them off you feel the difference.
👊 How do you keep going and push harder?
Youtube helps me a lot. I bust out some songs that just get my blood going like Adventure Club or Nas.
Also having friends. Seeing my friends get stronger makes me really stay ahead. I can’t be the weakest one in the crew.
I think its super important to surround yourself with good people, who are ambitious and hard working.
🏆 How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
My goals in general is just to maintain peak level of health.
We are currently going through the Covid-19 crisis. So I just been doing morning walks and then training at home. I been catching up on a lot of computer work so I get up every now and then and run in place or do burpees.
My goals in general is just to maintain peak level of health. You see some of the people do crazy tricks in my genre, and I fully support them but for me its not so important to learn new risky movements. Now it’s just stay with mostly what I know.
I will try new stuff but under a very controlled setting. I am very happy with my training over the years and I wouldn’t change a thing.
🤕 How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
You have to always warm up. Progress slowly, never rush. All bad things come usually from rushing. I listen to my body a lot which has done wonders for avoiding injuries for me.
If something feels like its about to hurt or my form is falling off I just stop.
Its easy to get influenced by peer pressure but you have to keep your health in mind. The extra reps just aren’t worth it, and if you calculate time off if you get injured it would be a net loss.
If you do get injured try PRICE for the week off. Protect Rest Ice Compress Elevate. If its not better after a couple days of that its time to seek out a qualified professional.
I try to get 8 hours of sleep in a day and eat overall healthy.
I’m not big on supplements. I think you get everything you need from a balanced high quality diet, full sleep, sunlight, meditation (manage stress) training and sex. The all natural lifestyle.
If you have a hard time getting protein in, then get a tub. Besides that maybe Vitamin D for the winters.
🍎 How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
The longer you wait the stronger that craving will dictate what you eat.
I try to eat pescatarian although I am not strict. I eat chicken maybe 1-2 times a week. Fish about the same.
I am not tracking calories as of now. When I do track I cut at about 2000 a day. I eat when I first feel hungry. In the morning it’s around 9am, lunch around 12pm, dinner around 4pm, and a late snack maybe an hour later.
I think its really important to eat when you first feel hungry in order for you to control your cravings. The longer you wait the stronger that craving will dictate what you eat.
Try it for yourself and you will feel it. Its an intense feeling. Avoid this and eat at the start of your hunger pans.
I drink a lot of coffee and tea. I like to alternate about 2-3 cups of each a day. It helps me stay focused but also helps calm down your hunger I feel.
👍 What has inspired and motivated you?
When I first started in freestyle calisthenics I would watch Bronx Bartendaz and Hannibal for King a lot on Youtube.
Watch them do amazing stuff made me really want to try it. Every single movement. It was like gravity defying. That along with good music. Studies even show music has a impact on training.
I like old school rap and some select form of dupstep.
This along with training with a group of friends has been key to my development in training.
✏️ Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
Tune the world out, and train hard.
I think first and foremost set goals that are attainable. If you are working towards a goal you can focus. If you do a little bit of everything every day you will go nowhere fast, you won’t be great at anything.
It’s ok to be diverse but not starting out. Conquer 1 lane at a time.
Everyones advice is not equal. Listen to a lot of different sources then decide your route. Everyone and their mother has an option on how you should train, if you listen to everyone you will bouncing off the all walls non step.
If I was starting today I would pick a nice split that would hit every single muscle evenly through out the week. I would warm up properly before each exercise day, and load up on protein.
Also a good pair of headphones. I like the airpods. Tune the world out, and train hard.
🤝 Are you taking on clients right now?
I don’t do a lot of 1on1 training. I charge really high rates so I only work with celebrities. I do sell a program at a heavily discounted rate at Barstarzzbtx.com.
📝 Where can we learn more about you?
Getting started in calisthenics is hard. It looks very intimidating I know. I been there before with my mouth open wondering if I could ever do a muscle up, then trying and failing.
I dedicated my life to calisthenics, and I learned the best systems that work.
You can learn more about them at barstarzz.com where we offer coaching, merchandise, resistance bands, and workout programs.
My personal Instagram is @edbarstarzz.
