Disclaimer: FitFast Fitness Bootcamp is now Epic Performance and Fitness. They are now located at Oakridge Business Park, A.S. Fortuna, Mandaue City and at ViBo Place, Escario, Cebu City. (Updated August 15, 2017)

FitFast is a fitness and wellness facility dedicated to the goal of providing simple, efficient and effective exercise and fitness methods to improve a person’s quality of life. They are not limited to fitness but instead their goal is to provide a holistic fitness and wellness experience for our clients.

Their aim is to simplify fitness. So many gyms are caught up with fads, claims, and quick-fixes. FitFast feels like this is something they want to change. Fitness should first and foremost be safe for all individuals; to minimize risk and simplify the fitness experience.

A holistic fitness experience at FitFast Fitness Bootcamp

Too often, people come into gyms intimidated, FitFast’s goal is to be a gym where even the most sedentary individual would feel welcomed to come in. They want to be a facility wherein our clients and potential clients are assured that they will get fit, efficiently and effectively, with a strict adherence to safety through proper exercise selection, and ensuring that FitFast clients perform each exercise with proper form and tempo.

We are fortunate to be given a chance to feature them on this website and interview Mr. Pio Solon of FitFast.

What makes you different from other establishments that provide fitness services?

The biggest emphasis is on making our movements safe and functional for our clients. Too often our clients come in with poor posture, and tight hips, this is really just a result of chronic sitting in our society. With our circuits, you will notice a balanced program of pushes, pulls (horizontal and vertical), knee dominant exercises, hip dominant exercises, rotary and anti-rotary exercises for the trunk. These movements are functional, integrating muscles, not isolating them, and will retrain an individual’s coordination and kinesthetic awareness. We aim to ensure that the movements we do at the gym can be safely performed by all individuals.

For example, we do not do exercises like burpees, although a staple in many other gyms and other trainers, we feel like this exercise might cause back pain as some individuals might have difficulty performing the exercise with a neutral spine. The movements that go into each program are well-thought off to ensure safety and injury prevention amongst our clients. We always aim to use movements that can be adopted by many across a spectrum of fitness.

What programs do you offer to your clients?

We do circuit training with a balanced program that typically lasts an hour. Circuit training is a method of training that aims to train muscular endurance with cardiovascular conditioning. Our yoga programs are also designed according to principles of the functional movement systems, emphasizing the mobility and stability continuum in movement. We believe that our yoga programs are safe for individuals of all levels and are especially important in correcting postural imbalances as a result of chronic sitting in society.

Athletic types might also find some benefit in these programs as the increased range of motion should contribute to injury prevention and improved movement quality in athletic performance.

How would define a FitFast lifestyle?

A FitFast lifestyle is anchored in the Five pillars of wellness. We believe that to truly become well, one must have Faith, Focus, Friends, Fitness, and Food. Faith starts in your belief in yourself, focus is when passion meets dedication, friends is a community of support and being there to support another, fitness is the ability to perform our tasks with efficiency and endurance with a surplus of strength, and food as a means to nourish our bodies and even our souls.

After graduating from Science High School and being interested in the application of sciences in sport, Mr. Pio Solon then proceeded to the University of the Philippines in Diliman to pursue a degree in Bachelor of Sports Science from the College of Human Kinetics. He had varied interests from Biomechanics, Exercise Physiology and Strength and Conditioning.

After college, Pio then took the CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning) Certification by the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association). He pursued a career in Strength and Conditioning in Manila before starting out here in Cebu. This profession has allowed him to work in various sports such as professional basketball, professional and amateur boxing, collegiate basketball, as well as an ample number of elite athletes and individuals scattered across a broad range of sports.

He had also worked in the fitness industry in various capacities, and as a professor at the University of San Carlos teaching Physiology and Kinesiology to PE Majors. This background in elite performance, fitness, and the academe has allowed him through FitFast to fine-tune systems and programs to make them more efficient and effective to the population at large.

Four years ago, Pio decided to open Epic Performance and Fitness Solutions and is proud to say the pioneering facility for Strength and Conditioning here in Cebu. They offer our services mostly to athletes and other individuals whose aim is to increase their performance in their given sports.

FitFast Fitness Bootcamp came to fruition when after looking at the strength and conditioning programs, they saw that most individuals were intimidated by the setting. It dawned on them that most people, especially sedentary folks, are looking for something simple yet effective mostly to lose weight and attain an ideal body composition. People do not need a quick-fix. They are looking to change their lifestyles but do not know how to start.

Thus, FitFast Fitness Bootcamp was born. Mr. Pio Solon and his partner, Silver, sought to create a facility where simple, efficient and effective exercises can be done from people of all walks of life, all levels of fitness all in an effort to lead people into a journey of fitness and wellness.

What is the ideal FitFast Lifestyle?

More than anything, we think of it as a balanced lifestyle. We follow the 80-20 rule as it is realistic for us given our numerous food cravings. 80% dedication and 20% pleasure is key. Stay focused on your exercise and fitness, but have a bit of pleasure on the side, it’s good for the soul.

What are FitFast signature routines?

We try to do a lot of movements like squats, lunges, hip hinges, a lot of rowing exercises for the upper back (postural correction) a lot of regressions and progressions for various core exercises. We like doing kettlebell swings as this movement burns emphasizes proper lumbopelvic rhythm, core stability, active flexibility in the hamstrings and overall trains strength and cardiovascular conditioning all in one.

We like teaching these exercises and we try to do it better each time.

They work with all individuals across a broad spectrum of fitness and it’s normal to see a very fit guy working alongside a person who just got started working out. FitFast believes in a linear progression, load might increase by 10% after three weeks, or reps might be added through the different training cycle.

Their training progression is very linear with an emphasis on gradual progression according to improvements in one’s work capacity and strength.

You can visit Epic Performance Gym at Oakridge Business Park, A.S. Fortuna, Mandaue City. The Epic Fitness Gym is located at ViBo Place, Escario, Cebu City.

They are open from 6:30 AM to 9:00 PM, Mondays to Saturdays.

Join the Official Epic Performance and Fitness Facebook Page for more insights in their programs and routines.

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About Epic Performance and Fitness

Epic Performance (Oakridge Business Park, A.S. Fortuna, Mandaue City) is a semi-private, exclusive training facility geared for athletes and individuals who are looking for a more specialized and individualized approach to their training. We specialize in creating individualized and specialized programs for performance, injury prevention, fitness, health, fat loss and weight loss.

Epic Fitness (ViBo Place, Escario Cebu City) is a fitness and lifestyle center. We offer fun and novel circuit training exercise, as well as studio classes like Yoga, Combat Cardio, Flow by Epic, among others. It is an ideal destination for individuals looking to get fit. Circuit training is a method of training that does strength based exercises in an interval fashion and is an awesome way to develop strength-endurance, conditioning, and overall fitness. No matter what level of fitness you’re in, our programs can be scaled and progressed.

Photos by Robo Formacion Photography
Model: Rami Harven Gallego

Special acknowledgment to Mr. Pio Solon of FitFast Fitness Bootcamp for the time in answering our questions for the feature; to Kay Marie Berangel for teaming us up with this project.