👋 Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
I was born in France from Italian parents, with an overachieving mission in mind! Constructed with a disruptive spirit and an imaginative mindset – I wanted to create the future.
I was diagnosed with ADD particularly late in my life, a specific class of mental disorders that affects children and teens but often will continue on in adulthood like it did for me.
Trouble concentrating, staying still or focusing, impulsive decisions and lack of focus due to outside distractions were symptoms I was forced to live with on a daily basis.
However I went to university, earned a bachelors in Biochemistry, master in immunology and genetics before finally graduating as an engineer in biotechnology while studying neurosciences & brain functionalities.
My primary job is being a Founder CEO, specialist in achieving strategic objectives with a primary focus of increasing shareholders’ wealth through merger, acquisition, new business developments, undertaking share offering and raising capital.
I’m currently the founder CEO of Z-SCI Corporation, a multimillion dollar enterprise.
However my personality greatly extends outside of simply business. I take part in professional collecting of urban and contemporary arts, wines, watches and cigars.
I hold a tremendous passion towards extreme sports, thrill seeking activities and most importantly an ambitious calisthenic street workout athlete in which I hold a place as a brand ambassador and influencer to other inspiring athletes worldwide.
I reside in Montreal, Quebec in Canada where are also my wife and fifteen year old daughter.
I’ve been an athlete for as long as I can remember
I’ve been an athlete for as long as I can remember, always grinding for performance, dreamer of world records, started very young as rockclimber and speleology, then 10K runner, tennis, even basketball.
At the age of 19 I started muay thai & kickboxing and at 20 became vice champion of kickboxing in France, I then went into skydiving and as I grew older moved on to more normal weight lifting,
About 3 or 4 years ago, I switched exclusively to body weights workout and functional training, to improve flexibility and strength.
I was contemplating calisthenics, but my trainer was telling me I was too old to start and it was hard on joints.. and I should move on and admit my age..
Despite that, I gave a shot to calisthenics about a year ago and discovered a hidden passion for this gem of a sport.
Coming to conclusion this specific kind of athleticism involved more than just body movements but required immense focus, concentration and strong mental power in order to produce phenomenal results, spiked an unquenchable thirst for this class of sports in me.
From then on I never went back. Calisthenics consist of gymnastic exercises to achieve and improve bodily fitness and grace of movement.
The idea came when I saw my Instagram account @cyborggainz booming rapidly.
I began explaining the concept of neurobiological mechanisms of skill acquisition in my posts and got a lot of attraction and interest coming from my followers. Inspiring others is an extremely meaningful concept to me and I knew I wanted to help educate others on what helped me the most.
Using the Neuroscience concept that is, if you increase your brain’s neuroplasticity, you can create and strengthen motor pathways faster. This process is called hyper plasticity, also known as hyper learning: the perfect, most efficient way to get stronger.
If the body is being trained, shouldn’t the brain be trained along with it?
My concept is Neuroscience calisthenics: if the body is being trained, shouldn’t the brain be trained along with it?
To me, the difference between good athletes and great athletes is that great athletes know that in order to maximize strength and potential, training the body as well as the mind is essential.
Grasping the concept of the neurobiological effects will make you stronger, faster and more explosive. Train like a cyborg and you will become a better athlete!
⏱ Describe a typical day of training
I’m adding neuropriming to generate brain plasticity in my workouts.
- Wake up at 5:30 every morning ready to push human performance forward.
- Drink 1L water
- Stretch a bit
- Light Breakfast
- Ultra Cold shower
- Expose to SunLight
- Hit the Gym for a two and a half hour daily workout.
I sit for 15min, close my eyes, and listen to the silence around, giving my brain a moment to reach its peak. It’s worth learning how to control your brain so you can reach the state of higher performance.
Learn to switch between the rational mind and the intuitive mind and you’ll be able to push your brain in a free flowing state of mind…
All starts with silence, deep breathing and meditation that is mandatory for my brain to reach a flow state before workouts so that I am able to get in a zone full of focus and concentration.
I’m adding neuropriming to generate brain plasticity in my workouts.
Numerous neuroscience studies demonstrate that if you increase the brain’s neuroplasticity, you can create and strengthen motor pathways faster. This process is called hyperplasticity, or hyperlearning.
I workout 5 days a week, with sessions of about two and a half hours including a daily 20-30min cardio to start with. In the summer I run 10 kilometers once a week to keep my cardio top shape.
I choose not to follow any particular diet as it goes against my principle of being controlled by something other than my very own mindset.
Simply, I avoid overeating or carbs, the fact is that I’m not attracted to the taste of sugar, so keeping it away from my plates isn’t a big deal for me.
I’m glad I’ve never had a sweet tooth: neuroscience demonstrated that the addiction to sugar is ten times more addictive than cocaine!
My favorite move is the planche, however it is also one of the more challenging ones. My best skill is the front lever, for some reason I have some ease performing this one, most likely due to the fact that it was the first move I learnt in Calisthenics.
My instagram account @cyborggainz is my training Log. Every single training session is always captured on camera. I have a ton of videos that I can view, review and discuss in order to adapt, adjust and decode each skill.
My best buddy Gregoire is gold in the process, with his long experience and knowledge of the sport.
My fitness bag is pretty much empty, considering I use my body weight for most movements. Chalk wrist wraps and a pair of parallettes is pretty much all it contains. I can train anywhere anytime.
👊 How do you keep going and push harder?
It is no wonder that fitness as a whole requires dedication, focus, maturity of character and most importantly patience and perseverance.
Everyone has bad days and good days, the important thing being that even in the bad days the motivation to better yourself stays in your mind and pushes you forwards, no matter your mood of the day.
Being an athlete is a long run, often not quite getting as much credit as they should.
The brain is a stubborn organ and conditioning it to believe working out itself is part of a routine is usually helpful enough to get you out of bed on your worst days.
I believe the most excitable part of being an athlete is when the hard work pays off. As soon as it does, a more meaningful attachment comes between an athlete and his sport and working out becomes a passion, no longer a chore.
There are no easy routes to the results you want. No diet, special drink or other scams will get you everything you’ve ever wanted.
Even with the use of neuroplasticity, which can most definitely facilitate the work, physical practice of your sport still needs to be done in order to use neuroplasticity for it’s full benefits.
The only way to get to the top, starting from the bottom, is to hold a certain discipline with yourself, always keeping you and what is best for yourself in mind.
On certain occasions, as an athlete, it is important to be slightly selfish by making time for yourself, away from work, family and any other distractions.
A few hours focusing on just yourself, your body and your art is essential to a general wellbeing. This is why I chose to give myself alone time in the morning, to meditate, workout and globally do what I love most: Calisthenics, with the help of neuroscience.
I’m lucky enough to be blessed with a family that is understanding about the importance of calisthenics for me and is very considerate about the time I reserve for the practice of the sport.
🏆 How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
I work everyday to be a better, stronger version of myself than yesterday.
That is how I am as a person globally and I do not see that ever changing. I plan to continue living each day better than the last, so what the future holds to me is unknown, all that is certain is it can only improve and I will continue reaching for the stars.
To make sure I never plateau I challenge each of my muscle groups in different ways each day. This is also beneficial towards my mental health because it brings excitement and new challenges to each workout.
I am walking into the future open minded yet blind. I can’t possibly imagine every detail the future holds but that is what inspires me to work harder every day to give my family a life full of adventure and pleasure, to keep our life excitable and to keep working on my passions such as calisthenics.
🤕 How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
After an injury has happened I make sure to first of all keep my hydration levels high.
All athletes know how incredibly frustrating injuries are. It stands in the way of your passion, backtracks you as well forces you to take it easy, something that is very annoying when it is standing in the way of your goals.
After an injury has happened I make sure to first of all keep my hydration levels high. Water is the basis block of humans and it is incredibly important to drink over a liter of water a day, especially after an injury.
I make sure to get full nights of sleep so my muscles can repair themselves and I keep on a healthy diet packed with protein to strengthen the body.
Not too long ago, I invested in a massage gun. This has entirely changed my recovery. Using it for 10-15 minutes a day on the affected body parts stimulates recovery puts me right back on my feet.
🍎 How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
Personally speaking, I refuse to follow any kind of specific diet such as keto or vegetarian as these are often not as beneficial as we make it out to be.
I pack each meal full of protein and live a balanced lifestyle but apart from that I chose not to embark in all these new diet trends, each claiming to be better than the last.
Once in a while, when I feel like my body needs a certain boost, I will make a protein milkshake to bring to the gym with me however, if I have a protein packed breakfast I see no need for it.
Binge eating has never been a problem for me.
Naturally, I feel disgust towards nutrients that I consciously know has negative outcomes towards myself. For example I have no attrayal towards sweets or fat of any kind.
My only weakness is dark chocolate which, in small quantities, is actually very good for your mind and can help promote neuroplasticity.
👍 What has inspired and motivated you?
I believe the best way to be and stay inspired is if your source of inspiration comes from the essence of one’s self.
What I mean by this is, people go, we forget motivational quotes and we all have bad days where all the friends in the world and special podcasts are incapable of getting out of bed.
However, what is entirely permanent until the end of your life is yourself, this is why every morning, I wake up and take inspiration from myself, from my results and I progress in life knowing I can become whatever I put my mind to, as long as I work for it.
All my research on neuroscience has tremendously inspired me as well because it helps me understand better what is going on in my body and how I can help myself in the best way possible.
I try to rely on no one but myself so it is obvious that when it comes to my passion for calisthenics I pull inspiration and motivation from myself by simply looking in the mirror and knowing anything is possible as long as I believe in myself.
It took me a long time to grasp this sense of self confidence but I believe it is the most important characteristic required for success.
✏️ Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
The first rule required to achieve your dream goal in fitness is consistency. This includes patience, focus and other qualities but they can all be summarized in consistency.
No matter how hard the day is, how tired or weak you feel, as long as you master consistency and know getting out of bed and putting in the work is the single key to success, you will achieve anything you can think of.
I believe it’s important to listen to those trying to help you, as often they know things beginners aren’t aware of.
After all, these mentors are often trying to help you and I wish I had grasped on to that when I needed it the most.
Surrounding yourself with positive people who bring you up and motivate you, challenge you mentally and are overall a compatible person for your mindset such as my friend Gregoire or Frank Medrano or if you’re lucky enough to know people like Ben Greenfield or Jordan B Peretson..
Something I find to be absolutely horrible in fitness, is the sense of pride. Those whose ego stand in the way of their success and take every loss as a personal offence.
How are you supposed to learn if every mistake you make drives you to senseless anger?
There are more important things in life than getting frustrated over such small inconveniences.
Friendly competitions with fairness, respect and kindness can motivate and help many succeed in a good, nurturing environment. When one person becomes overly competitive it breaks this balance, causing everyone including yourself problems.
Always be respectful of others, as most are trying just as hard to improve themselves.
🤝 Are you taking on clients right now?
I just teamed up with elite coaches and professional athletes to create a new unique web with exclusive membership area that offers a new approach to calisthenics training.
Calisthenics is a great form of exercise that involves a variety of movements carried out rhythmically with minimal equipment to exercise larger muscle groups. Recent research indicates that the exercise boosts the brainpower.
The new web application Cyborgainz combines neuroscience to increase the brain’s neuroplasticity, create and strengthen motor pathways faster. This often makes is easier and faster to master any skills.
Individuals using the application will be offered custom workout and personalized plans that match each of the programs with an individual’s specific goals and objectives.
📝 Where can we learn more about you?
Best is on my website cyborggainz.com and Instagram @cyborggainz.
