1) Who is Yuri Marmerstein? (where are you from, what do you do, a bit about yourself (hobbies, etc)
Honestly, I'm still in the process of figuring that out myself.
I was born in Odessa, Ukraine though I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and currently reside in Las Vegas though I frequently travel the world teaching workshops and seminars. I work as an acrobat and "movement teacher", whatever that means these days. I like to think that I teach people how to develop increased body awareness and appreciation of physical arts through the pursuit of handstands and acrobatic skills. I also do some occasional performing in Las Vegas.
I work a lot so I need to get some more hobbies, but I am passionate about what I do so I enjoy training, learning new skills, analyzing movement, and theorizing about pedagogy and how to teach better. Apart from that, I enjoy cooking(sourdough bread has been my most recent undertaking) getting out into nature when I can.
2) How many years have you been training? (Including how you got started, etc)
I have been training for around 16-17 years now. I got started at the tail end of high school, and my original inspirations were the old time strongmen(particularly Maxick and Monte Saldo and their methodology of muscle control) and some of the martial arts film stars like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. I had no teachers, coaches, or online materials back then to study from, so I was mainly self-taught. I think this gave me a huge advantage with what I'm doing now as a teacher, but I definitely could have done things differently as far as advancing my own personal practice.
In my 4 years of college(I attended Ohio University and studied physics) I underwent a pretty big transformation. I gained around 30 pounds(mostly muscle) due to training a lot and all-you-can-eat dining hall those first couple years. During this time I was also exposed to many different physical disciplines including various martial arts, capoeira, cheerleading(my claim as a division 1 college athlete), calisthenics, and weightlifting. I've continued training since then, in many different disciplines with varying focus.
3) Whats been the most challenging/hardest part of your journey so far? and how have you overcome them (set backs, rejections, injuries, basically anything difficult that you have had to overcome)
Those first few years of training without any ideas or guidance were difficult, but luckily I was determined and didn't have much of a social life to hold me back. I've had plenty of injuries and set backs in my time. I have naturally loose joints(as a kid I could pop out my shoulders at will) which caused me a lot of trouble in terms of subluxation of shoulders, hips, and knees. I've had lots of wrist injuries from various impacts in acrobatics and martial arts. Luckily I've never had an injury serious enough to require surgery(though who knows as I've never gone to the doctor for my injuries), but I've definitely suffered tons of setbacks. Transitioning to doing this kind of stuff for a living was difficult, it's quite challenging turning doing what you love into a business; to a certain degree it kind of kills some of the passion.
Moving to Las Vegas and trying to enter the world of circus was also challenging because I have to compete with people who have grown up doing gymnastics, whereas I was self-taught.
The past 7 years I have been traveling the world giving workshops and teaching seminars. While the experience has been amazing it has definitely cut into my own practice; it has been a lot more difficult to train properly and make progress with all the traveling, teaching and work related stuff that I have to do. It's not easy juggling all of it! Especially when it's just me doing everything.
I also have had focal dystonia in my hand since before I started training, which drastically changes the way my hand functions and grips things. Learning to one arm handstand on that arm was a particular challenge.
As far as overcoming challenges? First off everything is a lesson if you know how to look for it. I learned just as much from getting injured as I ever had from training and succeeding.
There's always something you can do to better yourself and learn from. One time I had a bad knee injury which forced me to train only upper body. That resulted in a shoulder injury; and after that my training for a couple months consisted primarily of rehab/recovery work. This made me more serious about injury prevention and mitigation over the long term and drastically changed my whole perception of my practice. This is just one example, but there is always something to learn and get better in from every experience.
4) What does your typical workout/diet routine look like? (With any particular protocols you rate).
Honestly, I don't really follow any kind of workout routine. It's not my style, plus my life has been fairly chaotic a lot of the time with my travel schedule.
I play around a lot; just moving with no real intention. Sometimes I do specific technique training, sometimes I work strength, flexibility or other physical attributes, other times I just play around, but there's a ton of variation with all of it. Definitely haven't followed any kind of specific program or protocol for many years now.
5) What new knowledge have you learned over this past year regarding training, lifestyle and nutrition? (And How has it changed your focus for the future).
It's not so much about over the past year as it has been continuous over my life. I am always trying to learn something new and see how I can apply it. If I get too stuck in a routine or doing something the same way, I experiment with changing it just to see if I can learn something from that. There is always something to learn from, even if it's just another perspective on what you already know/do.
6) Whats your favourite cheat/Treat meal?
Butter and honey sandwich. Specifically, my homemade sourdough rye, kerry gold irish butter, and top it with raw honey I get from a local beekeeper. I wouldn't call it a cheat meal though, I'm not cheating on anything, it's just delicious.
7) Whats one supplement that you could not live without?
I'm pretty sure I can live without any supplements. I take a few but I don't rely on them too much. I don't really take any supplements when I travel. I would say the one thing I have taken consistently over the last few years is mumijo/shilajit; I like it but definitely could live without it.
8) If you had to start your Journey from scratch with both your health & physique what would you do differently and why?
I would work a lot more basics over my first few years than be concerned over fancy stuff. That would give me a better foundation to build from so I don't spend all that time going back and fixing bad habits. I would try to apply a "slow and steady wins the race" mentality early on and think of skills and concepts over a 5-10 year plan rather than trying to get immediate gratification.
9) Who do you look upto in the fitness industry and why?
Honestly, I'm mostly pretty disappointed with the fitness industry these days. Everything is so fake. Too much pretentious in-your-face marketing. Everything is number one, the ultimate, the best, and it will give you all the answers. I feel like everyone is trying way too hard to be an "expert". This leads to a problem with peoples' attitude and perception as well; they expend so much time and energy seeking out other people's answers. They jump from one solution to another instead of exploring to look for their own. Then they declare themselves experts because they took a few weekend certifications, now we have armies of experts who only went through someone else's process. I do my best to offer alternate perspectives in the hopes of promoting more critical thinking, but even by doing so I'm still part of the problem.
I went off on a bit of a rant there, but short answer is I don't look up to anyone in the fitness industry currently.
10) If you had to give one bit of advice to people starting out what would that be?
Take time to explore. Experiment. Play Around. Don't take things too seriously and allow yourself to fail. Keep a healthy ratio of theory and practice. Last, don't forget to think for yourself and ask "why".
11) What new goals do you have on the horizon?
I don't really set "goals" so to speak but there are a few things I'm working on. None of them are very sexy though. I'm working to reorganize my business so I can travel less. I have a few books I would like to write and release, and less travel is something that would greatly help in accomplishing that. I'm working on trying to get over my dystonia, which is a very nuanced and frustrating process. I'm still doing lots of training of course, but I don't have any immediate training goals I am trying to achieve; just going with the flow and enjoying the process.
12) Where can people find you? (website, social media accounts)
I teach workshops all around the world and also offer private training out of Las Vegas. You can also check out my website and social media channels for regular postings.
Website: www.yurimar.com
Instagram: @yuri_marmerstein
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yuri.marmer/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChOI-0z67jymsW6Xtz1yvHA
