Today we’d like to introduce you to Igor Carvalho.
Igor, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and came from a poor family. My mom raised me while working several jobs. In fact, she worked so much that for many years I had to live with my grandma who was 4 hours away. It was hard but my mom was able to help me pay for college, and at that time, I was the only one in my family to graduate from university. But while I was still young, I began coaching men’s and women’s gymnastics. Some of my female athletes made it to the National team. I was working really hard but I enjoyed what I was doing and never thought I would leave Brazil. But when I was 27, I was offered a job in NJ as a head team coach for my friend’s gym. I didn’t speak any English but I was excited for the opportunity and decided to take it.
By 1995, I moved to the Dallas area and worked at a few gyms over the years until a friend asked if I would partner with her and her sister to open a gymnastics facility in Rockwall. In 2008, we opened United Elite Gymnastics and Cheer where I still coach.
Even though I’m known as an elite gymnastics coach, I have worked with all different athletes ever since I moved to Texas. It all started with my accountant. I knew his son played football in Allen so we talked football a lot. After convincing him that his son would benefit from going through a proper stretching routine, we began working together to improve his flexibility. His son saw results on the field and he wasn’t as prone to injury as his teammates were. Word got out fast and I began working with some of his teammates. That snowballed into me stretching athletes of all different sports.
Things really started ramping up in 2011. Local NFL pro athletes and their trainers were looking for a facility where they could train since their team’s facility were closed during the lockout. Trainers found my gym which is inside the Rockwall Indoor Sports Expo (R.I.S.E.) and they asked if they could use some of my space. Not only did I let them use some of the gymnastics equipment, I also offered to stretch them before or after they trained. My goal was to get them to realize that when they improve their flexibility, their game will improve too.
One athlete, Marion Barber, said after just one stretch session with me, that he felt “his whole back open up” and that he hadn’t felt that good in seven years! He really wished he had met me while he was in college so he could have been stretched this way all during his whole NFL career too. Well, he got so excited about my stretching routine that he told many of his friends. I soon found myself stretching about 15 NFL players. Every one of them told me that they have never gotten stretched the way I stretch them. They couldn’t believe their bodies could get into all the positions I was putting them in. I call my stretching technique Igor’s Method of Motion Enhancement because I see how my routine enhances the movement of these already amazing athletes.
These days I find myself stretching many pro athletes and also providing supplementing training. That all started about three years ago when a pro athlete came to my gym in Rockwall to get stretched. During the stretch, he was talking about not being able to train hard since he was recovering from an ankle injury. I wanted to help him out so I told him to try some basic trampoline work. Nothing crazy, like backflips or anything, just basic jumping. I put him through a modified version of a routine that I put together over my 30 years of coaching. I knew it would be safe and wouldn’t hurt him. He loved it! He started training with me during his recovery and I was having a lot of fun training him because I started coming up with new drills that were specific to his sport. He was recovering quickly and he told me his entire body felt stronger, not just his ankles.
It didn’t take me long before I started encouraging all my players to do trampoline training. It’s definitely a surface they’re not used to training on, but they keep coming back because I take them through a really intense workout and they don’t hurt afterward. They see that the trampoline training has helped them improve their balance, endurance, speed, coordination, and also strengthens their core. They really appreciate having a high-intensity workout without having to endure constant pounding on their joints. That led me to start a new business for those who want to train like my pros. HILI Pro Training is my new company which provides a high-intensity, low-impact trampoline workout for the serious athlete. In addition to my pro athletes, I train college, high school and youth athletes.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, I don’t think anyone has a smooth road. For me, I had to first learn English as an adult which is always harder than when you’re young and learning a new language. I know the way I said things confused people because I didn’t say things the way I should have so a lot of misunderstandings happened. I still don’t speak perfect English and I will always have my accent, but I communicate much better now. People understand me and I feel confident when I speak. Unfortunately, while I was still learning English, some people saw me as unintelligent. It’s strange how some Americans seem to think that if someone speaks broken English then that means they are not smart. I discovered this in my personal life and at work. In some business situations, a few people have tried to deceive me because they thought I wouldn’t figure things out. They would always be surprised when I discovered the deception and that their plans to take advantage of me were exposed.
Another challenge for me was getting used to American culture. For example, it was strange for me to see Americans greet each other with only a wave or a handshake. As a Brazilian, it’s normal to greet people with a hug and a kiss. In fact, it’s considered rude if you don’t hug everyone, especially those you work with every day. It’s very natural for me to hug, but it seems to make some people uncomfortable. And a lot of people told me I shouldn’t do it. So I have learned to hold back especially with people I’m meeting for the first time.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about HILI Pro Training – what should we know?
Well, I am co-owner of United Elite Gymnastics and Cheer in Rockwall, TX. It is the place to be if anyone wants to learn gymnastics or cheer from highly skilled coaches in Rockwall. We offer classes for recreation and competitive teams. We recently added a whole new section we call our Ninja gym for those who want to train like the ninja warriors on TV. Friday nights are very popular. We open our gym from 7 pm-10 pm to kids ages 5-16. They love playing with the coaches in a fun, relaxed atmosphere.
HILI Pro Training is my new company. It’s a cardio and strength training program. The main piece of equipment is the large trampoline. I came up with a whole system that I believe is the best supplemental training program out there. It’s currently being used by pros in the NFL and NBA. Not only is this system being used by pros, it’s also used with everyday athletes at all training levels. And because the trampoline reduces the impact on your body, that translates to a healthier athlete. HILI Pro Training also includes a recovery program as well as my stretching services. I know it will be the future of professional training. The complete HILI Pro Training system extends professional careers by keeping athletes healthy and functional.
HILI currently operates out of my gym in Rockwall, but a lot of my athletes have to drive really far to get to me so I’m looking into opening a location in Plano definitely and also Frisco and Garland soon. Right now the great people at Performance Sports Medicine and Therapy in Plano allow me to provide my stretching services there. So I’m grateful I have that location. We’ve been talking about putting a trampoline in there and I hope that can happen soon. They see the value it has for recovery purposes.
What I’m really excited about is a new collaboration I have with a research team from Baylor University. They connected me with someone who studies biomechanics and can collect data on my trampoline training. He’s going to generate reports on what’s happening during certain drills to see what muscles are actually being activated. I expect his data to also prove the effectiveness of my program but we’ll see what the data says. He seems to be excited to work with me too.
I must also mention that I’m very big on talking to my athletes about proper nutrition too. There’s no point in investing all this time and money to train your body to get into peak performance and then sabotage all your efforts by eating junk. So when they ask me what they should eat, I tell them to eat a plant-based diet and get rid of all sugar. It’s hard, but not really. Once they do it, they see how good they feel and they notice they have more energy. For those who are really serious, I let them try my healthy superfood pops. It’s basically frozen superfoods on a stick. I eat several a day. They taste much better than when I first started making them and many of my pros ask me for them.
Anyway, my goal with HILI is to help athletes reach their potential by understanding the importance of stretching properly, training on a low-impact surface and eating healthy. If they do that, they can be super-athletes.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My wife Paula is my biggest cheerleader. We met on my first day in America back in September of 1993. We’ve been married for 16 years now and I’m so thankful that she was willing to give up her good life in NJ with all her family and a really good job as a school teacher so she could marry me – a gymnastics coach who was a single father with a five-year old daughter. Because she was happy to take on the responsibility of raising my daughter, I was free to focus on my work. We make a great team and she helps me manage my busy schedule.
Of course, I also have to give credit to my business partners, Denise and Debbie. They believed in me and trusted me enough to open a gym together. That was 11 years ago. That opportunity freed me to use our facility in ways that I couldn’t if I was still working at other gyms. I really appreciate their support in letting me run HILI Pro Training out of our gym. We also make a great team. We share the same Christian values and make decisions for our gym based on what’s best for our customers and employees – not just us as owners.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2922 S Goliad St.
Rockwall, TX 75032 - Website: www.hiliprotraining.com
- Phone: 469-693-3848
- Email: igor@hiliprotraining.com
- Instagram: @igorc68
- Twitter: @IgorC68
Image Credit:
Paula Carvalho
Rafael Barlowe
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