When Dolvett Quince tells you to work your core, he’s not necessarily talking about abs. “The heart is the core of our health because it is the place where the blood flows from…it’s the core of our passion. It’s the muscle that will determine our ebb and our flow so to speak.”
For six seasons now, Quince has been helping participants of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” and a nation of inspired viewers get to the core of their weight loss and fitness goals.
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Known for getting dramatic transformational results, the LA-based trainer and New York Times best-selling author (The 3-1-2-1 Diet, 2013) knows that his clients “either want to yell at me or thank me, but either way I get the job done!”
Fitness is an inside out job, in the truest sense. Before Quince gets the results on the outside, he empowers his clients on the inside by helping them get mentally fit. You can’t be physically fit without being mentally fit, he shares. One of the ways he helps people tackle issues like looking for food as comfort is to give them an opportunity to talk.
By probing and getting to the ‘heart of the matter’ about why they eat what they eat, people can get what’s been weighing them down – emotionally and physically – “out of their system.” Quince explains, “The moment you start freeing yourself through words and you can actually hear yourself say the core of the pain, [it’s] an opportunity for them to really release a lot of the tension and pain they’ve been holding on to.”
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His approach as more friend than drill sergeant trainer is something he’s been honing since getting his start working at the YMCA. While working the front desk, he recalls the day someone told him, “You’re good with people, you seem like you got a good physique – have you ever thought about being a trainer?”
Quince had never thought about being a trainer before that moment, but he liked the idea. After getting certified through the YMCA, he trained teens, elderly and people from all walks of life. In 2004, he opened a private personal training studio in Atlanta, Body Sculptor, where he got his big break with the support of a local radio personality.
He went on to train some of our favorite celebrity bodies, including Angela Bassett, and fit couple Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker.
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When it comes to his own body, Quince, who is also spokesperson for the new #DustTheRustOff campaign, says one of the ways he keeps his heart healthy is doing cardio first thing in the morning to get his blood circulating. He skips breakfast and instead hits the treadmill for a walk or goes for a light jog.
“On the emotional side, I surround myself with good people,” he shares. Like-minded people like other entrepreneurs and people striving for their own greatness. “I surround myself with people like that and it just keeps me positive and I like to take in what I give out in that sense.”
For those of us who may have fallen a little bit off of our New Year’s resolutions (okay, a lotta bit off) or are close to falling off, Quince’s advice for getting and staying motivated is to schedule your life. “Schedule YOU in your life. Oftentimes, people schedule other things they have to do and don’t make themselves a part of it.”
The same way you have a set time to get up, get the kids off to school and get to work, the same way you can schedule time for your health. “That’s the exterior habit. Now from the interior perspective you want to make sure that you make conscious decisions of eating clean.”
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Commit to eating more greens or having greens at every meal. Drink more water. Quice also describes himself as a huge fan of supplements “to complement your life.” A supplement like ergothioneine, he shares, can help protect the heart from oxidative stress that can lead to heart failure, heart attack and stroke.
“I’m looking to help them create long-term habits and one of the long-term habits is finding a reason that you fall in love with exercise.”
His heart is definitely in the right place.
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