February 26, 2017

Meet Keeper Catran-Whitney of The Grind 6-Week Body Makeover in Woodland

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Keeper Catran-Whitney.

In 1971 at age 12, Keeper found out he was born deformed when doctors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles diagnosed Keeper with multiple compound scoliosis. He was born with not one S-curve but, with two S-curves. To make matters worse, his spine also turned 90o to the right side of his body. In effect giving his spine three S-curves. After looking at the x-rays, three doctors came into to examine room and asked him, “how is it you are standing straight up? To look at you, your head and pelvis line-up perfectly and to you look normal, however, what’s going on between your head and pelvis is anything but normal.” According to the doctor’s they determined I lost four inches of height, and I will never get that height back. So instead of being 6’1” I will be about 5’9”. “You’ll never be able to play sports again unless you wear a full body cast with titanium rods going through your shoulder, hip and ankle bones for a year. Also, you’ll need to lie on your back in the hospital on a table that entire year. If you don’t do this, by the time you’re 50 years-old chances are good you’ll be bent over at the waist at a 90-degree angle for the rest of your life.” Keeper’s mother looked at him and said, “It’s up to you.” One of the most important decisions of Keeper’s life took place when he was just 12 years-old. He looked at the doctors and told them, “I’ll pass on your offer. I will handle it myself. I’ll find another way. I’ll strengthen my back with exercise.”

Not long ago Keeper was obese at 215lbs had 33% body fat. Today, at age 58, he weighs 170lbs and is 8% body fat. Keeper knew if he was going to survive growing old with multiple compound scoliosis and a spine turned 90 degrees to the right, he would need to get crazy. He would have to change his eating and start working out. HARD.

Keeper is the creator of the popular workout Keeper’s “THE GRIND” 6 Week Body Makeover™ & Keeper’s The GRIND & SHRED Diet™. He is also co-creator of the P-SQARED™ workout with is daughter Sydney. P-SQARED is a workout that uses an agility ladder to build speed, agility, endurance, reaction and drive for dancers, stage performers and athletes.

He is a certified Insanity and CIZE instructor, NFPT Certified Personal Trainer. He is currently studying to take the ACE Group Fitness Instructor Certification.

Has it been a smooth road?
When the idea hits you that you want to create a business or follow a dream, the first obstacle will always be your mind. For, as soon as the euphoria of the idea begins to build that little voice in the back of your mind creeps in. The voice that reads a laundry list of reasons as to why you can’t make your dream come true. It happened to me just like it happened to anyone who has had a dream. As soon as I convinced myself that I could create a 6-week fitness program that would transform the body of people over 45, a program doesn’t mean you have to be 18 -25 years old to get in great in fantastic shape. A program that would help someone with physical challenges, life, work and family and time issues could reach body goals. I knew my program would work. It worked for me and friends and family, who I helped drop tons of body, lose weight and just look amazing.

As soon as I told myself it was possible, I began telling myself what I didn’t have what it takes. That I wasn’t good enough. That I didn’t have the money, the contacts, a location, the equipment, the friends or family who would help me, the time, the knowledge and all kinds of made up crap that kills most dreams in a second. I looked around and saw Shaun T and Insanity, Body Beast, Tony Horton and P90X, Jillian Michaels, the internet fitness stars and so many more. I said to myself the market is saturated. Who would want to listen to me? They people are so much younger than me. Blah, blah blah. Even though I’ve listened to self-development for years, I was still scared. How was I going to get customers, pay my bills and get noticed? After I finally decided to do it took me two years to act.

After that, the only thing that matters was for me to take action. Any action. Just get going. No matter how small the act is, it’s a victory. I held on to all my little victories when I started. They sustained me when thing didn’t go right. When thing did go right, it meant I was learning what I needed to learn.

Like most people who are looking to create a business, my obstacle was money. Knowing that I didn’t have any money I wrote a list of names of people who I might be able to ask for money. It was a good size list. The problem? I told myself none of them would lend me the money. As true as that might have been before I even ask people, I told myself I wasn’t good enough to pull it off. So, I waited for weeks before I asked. I’d go to bed every night saying, “tomorrow is the day I’m going to make those calls.” Well, tomorrow would roll around, and I’d have another excuse. It would be “after lunch,” “after dinner,” “when I get back from the doctor,” or “after I wash dishes.” By the time I was ready to call people it was too late in the evening. Then I’d go to bed proudly saying, “Tomorrow I’ll do it.” What a waste of time and energy. Look, I had no idea how to do what I wanted done. Sure, I watched other DVD fitness programs to get an idea but, their challenges were different than yours. Then I realized they always would be. I had to stop and think what made me different? What talents or knowledge do I have that other people don’t have? What are my natural advantages? What are my honed skills outside of fitness that I could bring to the game? What makes me unique? Not just a little unique. What makes me really unique? Well, I was over 55. I’m black. I have multi-compound scoliosis and a spine that turns 90 to the right. I have arthritis in my wrist and spine, and I’ve had three vertebrae replaced in my neck so my head on turns 65° to the left. I was a singer a drummer for twenty-five years, so I had no problem being in front of people, I love group fitness, and I can do my program wearing a 45lb weight vest. After a while, I realized I’m pretty unique. I have a message to sell, one that could cross multiple barriers.

This is what I came to understand, whatever challenges or obstacles I had, they were unimportant. There are people who had much less than I had that are doing amazing things. They are changing the world. I came to realize only two things mattered. How badly do I want my dream to come true and what am I willing to do to make it happen? Was I willing to put in 2-3 year to perfect my 6-week program even if it meant teaching hundreds of classes for free or next to nothing? The answer was yes! I knew I had to put in the time and lose money in the proves until I got noticed. Over the past thirteen months, I’ve personally taught over 1,200 Keeper’s The Grind 6-Week Body Makeover classes. Why? I needed proof of concept. I need to perfect the program and the only way to do it was for me to teach every class. To see the people. Talk to them. Find out what’s working and not during the six-week program. After about five months people started asking for a diet to go with my program, so I created Keeper’s GRIND and Shred Diet™. After that, it was about tweaking the program so just about anyone over 40 can get results. Because of my race, age and energy people started calling me Black Lalanne after the fitness icon Jack Lalanne.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Keeper’s The GRIND 6-Week Body Makeover – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
People ask me all the time about my business. What do I do? How does it work? Keeper’s The Grind Six-Week Body Makeover is a body composition changing program. The GRIND is designed to change your body’s body fat to lean mass ratio. I don’t focus so much on weight because after it said and done, that’s not what people want. What people want is to look amazing. When people have their dream body, they don’t care about the weight. And, that’s the way it should be. BMI doesn’t tell you a thing. BMI has been alerted so many times who would believe it? So what, your BMI is high. If your body fat is low, your lean mass is great, you’re tone and you have a bangin’ body who cares about BMI? I sure don’t and neither do most people. Muscle outweighs fat almost 2:1 and yet it takes up about half the space. With a great body fat to lean mass, you can get on the scale and freak out or look in the mirror and say to yourself, “damn. I look good.” Look, muscle gives you shape. It gives you curves. If gives you definition. For a man weighs 155lbs, he can look like he’s 175lbs if he is muscular and has low body fat. For a woman who is 135lbs, she can look like she’s 115lbs if she has low body fat and is toned to accentuate her curves. Not one woman has ever cared how much she weighed if she has her dream body. So, I focus on body composition changing, lowering body fat, maintain or adding lean mass. Making you look fantastic no matter what you’re wearing. I’m very good at getting people to their goals fast.

The thing I’m most proud is when other trainers come to me asking me how The GRIND program works because they’ve seen transform body’s fast. They what to know what’s the method behind The GRIND because I get amazing results for people. It’s funny, sometimes I see trainers sitting and watching me as they take notes. Trying to figure it out. Then a few days later I see them trying to do my program with their clients. The problem is they don’t understand it. How it works and why it works. During the six-week program, The GRIND constantly changes. From day to day and from week to week. There’s the basic section which flows to the 30’s then to the one-minutes and then the max cardio. It’s rare that any two days are alike. It’s total and constant muscle confusion with a desired outcome. It’s not haphazard. There’s a reason for everything. There are stages to body transformation. Most trainers don’t know the secret to transforming a body. They don’t know the stages. Most trainers just get certified and copy other people. Not me. I worked for years getting The GRIND right, and now it’s paying off for people.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Los Angeles offers such a wide variety of things to do when it comes health, fitness, and lifestyle. You can achieve any goal you want in many ways. With so many different cultures there is exciting energy everywhere. Other than the 405 Fwy there isn’t much I don’t like about Los Angeles. It’s a very cool place to live.

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