In the second part of this three part series Mariem Dekhili, DET’s Podcast Presenter, talks with Justin Garcia – a Calisthenics Coach at Gravity Dubai, International Gymnast, and Mental Health Advocate – about the lessons he has to share in his fitness journey.
The Bar is the Limit: Cirque du Soleil
00:00, Justin Garcia: I’ve taught people to hang from their neck safely.
Mariem Dekhili: What’s it called? A Iron neck?
Justin Garcia: A iron neck, yeah. I’ve taught people to… basically, do anything you would see in Cirque du Soleil, Le Pearl, whatever circus act you’re watching, I can teach people what to do, or what they’re doing, safely.
Even if you’ve never had a gymnastics background, you didn’t have an athletic childhood, you were like me, who at 18 had no anything, I could help you get there.
00:29, Justin Garcia: You’ve been through the steps to get there. You had the experience hands on. Yeah.
People look at what I’m doing now and they’re like, oh, you did gymnastics as a kid or like, oh, you were always fit. I was like, no, like I memorised the dictionary. I played video games 50 times over just to try to beat my time. I wasn’t outside running and climbing trees; I didn’t talk to people and I didn’t do anything athletic.
00:57, Justin Garcia: The most athletic thing I did was play tennis in high school, which is just sprinting back and forth for like five meters.
It is not excessive fitness, especially compared to what I do now.
Gymnastics, Social Norms, and Expectations in the MENA
It’s interesting because now I’ll train clients and I’ll train people who come to the gym for the first time and they wanna do these things.
They had similar upbringings where their childhood and their parents didn’t put them in gymnastics.
01:25, Justin Garcia: Their families didn’t support them break dancing or doing fitness in general, especially in this region.
It’s not hugely supported for females as well. Anybody doing anything that would essentially break the culture, break the stigma, break the norm, there’s this embedded unconscious, I can’t do it, I shouldn’t do it, this isn’t for me.
01:52, Justin Garcia: Depending on the client, depending on the person, I either have to agree with them so that they can be stubborn against me now and now I’m the enemy and you’re gonna prove it to yourself.
Reverse psychology. Exactly. Or I have to be the one that’s like, what are you doing? Like, why are you being mean to yourself?
02:20, Justin Garcia: This isn’t your voice. It becomes a really personal, emotional connection that I make with the clients all over teaching somebody how to stare at the floor upside down.
Stay Up to Date with the Latest on DET!
El Fasher in Crisis: Genocide Under the RSF
The Role of AI in a Future EU-GCC FTA
