Chelsea Boissoneault Interview

MP: How did you get into training Chelsea?

Chelsea: My husband is a Canadian Champion Bodybuilder (Mr. Junior Canada in 2003) and competed up to the world level placing 7th in the world. I used to train before but had no idea what I was doing really now that I look back. His passion for health and fitness wore off me quickly and we now share this healthy lifestyle and passion together. I went to watch a bodybuilding/figure competition in 2005 and it made me want to compete which I did twice in 2006 before I took time off to improve my physique to compete again in Fall of 2008.

MP: Why do you workout? Is it just to stay skinny or do you have other goals in mind?

Chelsea: I workout to keep building what I think is the perfect body which to me is lean and in proportion. Girls always think that they are going to get bulky muscles if they lift weights. Tell them why this is a common misconception and how you can lift weights and not gain huge muscles but stay really skinny and in shape by doing it. Females don’t have enough testosterone to build lots of muscle naturally, it is just not physically possible to get huge without many, many years of training and eating perfectly.

MP: What has fitness brought to your life? How has it changed you as a person?

Chelsea: Fitness has made me more goal oriented and shown me how I can achieve what I want when I have the right tools. Fitness makes you feel great about yourself and develops you into a healthier, stronger person. Fitness goals allow you to see how other goals you once thought were impossible to achieve are not any longer.

MP: How many days a week do you workout?

Chelsea: I weight train 4-5 days per week and for cardio I do none in the off-season but in contest prep, I religiously go 5 days a week and perform cardio to get my bodyfat down. 12 weeks out from a contest I start with 20 minutes of cardio 1 day a week and I work up to 45 minutes 1 day a week by 2-3 weeks out and maintain.

MP: What is the single best exercise that has worked for you?

Chelsea: Probably the deadlift, since it is a full body exercise. You are literally squeezing every fiber of your every muscle to get that weight up in a deadlift.

MP: How do you stay so fit all year round? Also, do you have to cut a lot of weight for competitions even though you always stay very lean?

Chelsea: I train all year round and eat well 90% of the time. It really comes with diet. For figure competitions, I never go over 10lbs past my competition weight in the off-season; and I take 12 weeks to cut that down so I can do it without losing muscle mass that I spent time building up.

MP: What is your advice to a beginner who has never lifted weights before, but should be doing so? Also, what is the one thing that you see people doing wrong in the gym over and over again, even advanced gym-goers?

Chelsea: Beginners should get advice from a knowledgeable professional. Don't waste your time. As for what I see people doing wrong, it's people performing the same workout day after day with little to no results.

MP: How did you get started as a personal trainer?

Chelsea: I was inspired to help others reach their health and fitness goals after I completed my first fitness/figure competition in 2006. I realized my passion for fitness needed to be shared and I wanted to help others get the body they wanted and also to get them to learn about the "whys" behind all we do. I like to help people understand the reason we at Free Form Fitness do things the way we do and why they are superior to other methods for long term health and to keep the weight off.

MP: What do you love about personal training?

Chelsea: I love when clients see results and they start to love the workouts and nutrition plan more and more as they go. I like to see them transform, I see their goals as "our" goals.

MP: Where do you find the motivation to train?

Chelsea: Being a personal trainer myself I therefore motivate others to train; and consequently, I must live by example. But sometimes that is not enough and I just have to think of my goal and how I will be upset with myself if I do not reach that goal and how happy I will be when I do.

MP: How do you find time to balance a healthy lifestyle with work?

Chelsea: My work is a healthy lifestyle since I own a personal training studio. This is a unique advantage for me but I also coach my clients as to how to do this with a regular office job by planning your food prep times as well as scheduling in your workouts. Also the people that train in the morning typically stick to their schedule better since there are less excuses in their head so early on in the day.

MP: As a personal trainer, what is the number one thing you teach your clients?

Chelsea: You can't make a client dedicated, disciplined or self-motivated, that has to come from themselves. I can give them the tools they require to get to their goal, have them create a schedule with me with weigh-in days set ahead of time to see how far along we are to getting to their goal and I can motivate them with stories of others like them that succeeded.

MP: Why do you think people should read your book, Abs on The Go?

Chelsea: My book will help them understand the whys behind the diet plan as well as tips and tricks to being able to stick to in long terms as a lifestyle rather than a short term plan. It also shows them how they can afford to eat what they want at times as well.

Chelsea's Book

Abs on the Go is the complete guide to everything you need to know on how to eat healthily in order to get the great abs you deserve. It is mainly tailored for people who have hectic lifestyles but want to incorporate health into their lifestyle, hence "abs on the go". Chelsea, along with her husband Jean-Luc, talks about everything you need to know to eat healthy. The book focusing on maintaining low insulin levels and not so much about calorie control. Chelsea talks about fitness and health being a lifestyle change and that if you want it, you've got to earn it through discipline. Chelsea and her husband got it down to a science, where during the week, you've got to eat clean, but once the weekend comes, then you can indulge. By allowing yourself "cheat days", this nutritional plan becomes feasible because you have something to look forward to every week. Many diets fail because they are too restrictive, and very few people can actually follow such limitations, so then they just quit altogether and experience weight gain. But this lifestyle change is so easy to follow that the pounds will just continue to shed. Buy Chelsea's book today and get your abs on the go.