Over the past few months, I had the chance to get to know Rua Gilna. Gilna trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at Renzo Gracie Garwood Academy, and over the summer he also became my trainer/coach. Gilna is the Founder and Director of Bua Fitness, and he has many years of experience in the fitness world. Gilna has trained famous athletes to everyday people and everyone in between.
Gilna has a background in martial arts, breakdancing, gymnastics, weightlifting and acrobatics. He offers Infinite Athlete Program- Online and Personal Training. I sat down with Gilna to learn more about his personal and professional journeys.
Gilna has many different job titles, but he is mainly a personal trainer.
“Technically I’m a personal trainer but I consult for physical therapists, I consult for neurologists, I consult on all sorts of rehab cases and sports performance cases. I work with a lot of professional athletes,” Gilna said. “My technical job title is a personal trainer but it goes a lot deeper than that.”
Gilna has received many different certifications over the course of his 20 year career.
“I have 40 or 50 different certifications in the fitness and rehab realm,” Gilna said. “The primary methodology I use in my rehab is what’s called PRI Postural Restoration Institute training and that’s post-optical physical therapy work.”
As for Jiu-Jitsu, Gilna tends to be the guy to go to for any injuries at our academy (Renzo Gracie Garwood Academy).
Gilna shared his thoughts on the experience of joining Jiu-Jitsu and Martial Arts in general.
“It’s a community. I started martial arts when I was seventeen as well and I wasn’t very confident either,” Gilna said. “And then everything is the best in the world with martial arts.”
Jiu-Jitsu for the most part is something that you have to try to not think about.
“Don’t wait until you think you’re ready because you’ll never be ready,” Gilna said. “Make the jump and figure out the landing later. If you can find one of your friends that goes, great–you’ll have a built in community.”
Everybody has a different path that leads to Jiu-Jitsu, but Rua’s journey is unique.
“I used to be in competitive martial arts for a long time, but outside of martial arts, I suffered a number of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs),” Gilna said. “None from actual Martial Arts, but it meant that getting hit in the head a lot more wasn’t a good idea. It has pretty significant cognitive and emotional effects after the fact that can last for years. I just missed the competitive atmosphere. I used to run a large chain of high end gyms in New York and I was head of training and education for them and I’m used to working with a team and being part of a team.”
Gilna’s favorite thing about Martial Arts is the challenge and that there is always someone better.
“My favorite thing about Jiu-Jitsu is you can learn something from anybody,” Gilna said. “Everybody should have a beginner’s mindset because you can learn what to do [and] what not to do from people. I think if more people had that mindset in other areas of life, they would be much happier.”
Everyone at Renzo Gracie Garwood Academy knows that Rua loves Kimuras. I can tell you this from experience, since I have experienced many Kimuras from Gilna.
A Kimura is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu technique where you put your arm though the other person’s arm and hold your wrist with the other hand.
Rua’s journey to becoming a personal trainer is also unique.
“I was sitting in college studying physics and my brother died. These things happen and life sucks sometimes,” Gilna said. “I was nineteen and my plan was to graduate in physics and we were both going to go into fitness together and work together. I realized at that point that most people who graduate in physics end up working for Google, Dell, Intel, big tech companies, or banks. I just wasn’t going to be happy doing that. so I stopped there and pursued my passion. That was twenty years ago.”
Gilna believes that personal training is more than just fat loss.
“A lot of people think that personal training is just for fat loss and that’s not what it is at all,” Gilna said. “When you understand the interaction seen with the brain and the movements, you can really turn someone into a different human…When you’re doing rehab and someone can’t walk anymore and has such chronic pain that they don’t love life you can give them that back [and]that’s worth getting out of bed for.”
Gilna loves that he gets to work with people who are motivated to work with him. He also gets the chance to make his own work schedule.
“[I get to] help people so much and that is the best thing in the world to me,” Gilna said. “I don’t have to aggressively pursue people. There are always people who refer me and who want to work with me and come in with a good attitude.”
Although I have only been training/rolling for a little under a year, I have learned an extreme amount from Gilna, not only about Jiu-Jitsu but also from him as a person. He dedicates 110% of himself in everything that he does and is well educated. I find myself fully trusting in him and his advice whenever I need help with techniques, injuries, fitness or nutrition. He is truly a “miracle man.”
