Good morning Samoa! Today we get to hear from Brandon Sefo who owns a gym and is a CrossFit and Strength and Condition Coach. 

Talofa Samoa, I’m Brandon Sefo and I’m a Gym Owner, CrossFit and Strength and Conditioning Coach, L2 Nutrition Coach, and a CrossFit Athlete. I am the one of the owners and coaches of CrossFit Fatu Toa, which is the only CrossFit affiliate in Samoa. 

We opened our gym in 2015 in Vaitele, before that we were training people for free in our backyard from 2013-2014. Our goal is and always has been to help each person that walks into our doors become the fittest and strongest version of themselves. Our goal is to keep growing and developing our coaching team and expertise to better serve our passion for promoting elite fitness on the island. 

As well as the sport of CrossFit. I’m also one of the owners of Fatu Toa Nutrition, which is an online nutrition coaching company that focuses on creating lifelong nutrition habits in our clients. Which I started about 3 years ago. 

My goal is to grow Fatu Toa Nutrition into other islands in the pacific and develop the general understanding of what good nutrition is and how to achieve it. 

My qualifications are: Bachelor of Business AUT University, CrossFit Level 1 Trainer, CrossFit Weightlifting Level 1 Certified, Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified, Precision Nutrition Level 2 Certified, Strength System International Level 1, Strength System International Level 2 and Judo Brown Belt.

What made you passionate about CrossFit and Strength and Conditioning?

I started strength training in my teen years to improve my Judo. I've always been fascinated by the process of getting stronger and fitter and that carried on throughout University, after which I pursued CrossFit as an athlete and coach while working full time. 

Once we outgrew our small space, my family decided it was time to go all in and open the gym we have today. Over this journey, we have had so much help from many people. 

My parents saw the potential in this and how passionate we were about it, and decided to help us get started. My siblings and cousins who are coaches and staff members. 

Family friends like our coach Amanda Bunn, who is our head of class programming; who has helped so much in not only my development as a coach but also as an athlete. She continues to help all our coaches develop their skill set and learn more. 

If you had one health message to share with Samoa, what would it be and why?

The best diet and exercise program ever, is the one you can stick with. Find exercise that you like to do, and find ways to be consistent at it. Find healthy foods that you like and learn how to cook them in a variety of ways that will help you to stick to eating them more often. Something I'd like to see better addressed is this huge emphasis on weight-loss, or rather rapid weight loss, and its relation to health. 

I think better education on the effects of rapid weight loss needs to be wider spread and that being thinner does not correlate to being healthy. I'd like to see people focus more on progress metrics like being able to lift heavier, or run longer, or do a pull up; instead of how much weight they lose. 

How has Physiotherapy shaped the way you perform and program?

My coach and mentor is a physiotherapist who has greatly influenced how I train, move and recover over the last 5 years. I had a shoulder reconstruction 2 years ago, which I have diligently rehabilitated well, if I don't say so myself. That and physiotherapy have really influenced how I train, warm up, cool down, and even coach. 

Knowing the difference between stress of exercise and actual injury is very important and hard for most people to grasp especially when they are in the heat of competing or training. 

I think physiotherapy is imperative for general population, athletes, weekend warriors and more. It’s SO important for people to understand how rehabilitation for an injury works, and that their injury will not just get better on its own, without the rewiring of movement mechanics that caused the injury in the first place. 

If you’d like to know more about Brandon or CrossFit Fatutoa you can contact them here: [email protected] or [email protected],  @tigerstlye490 on Instagram, @crossfitfatutoa for the gym, and @fatutoanutrition for our nutrition service