Boss Everline's Hollywood Transformation Secrets

Ron "Boss" Everline insists there's really no "secret" at all in his ability to help people from all walks of life achieve dramatic physical transformations. It all comes down to two words, he says: "Just train."

But dig a little deeper, and the former college football player turned celebrity coach has plenty of specifics to offer that keep his clients coming back—first and foremost being his desire to "just train" right alongside them. He counts among his clientele the musicians Ne-Yo, Diddy, Christina Milian, and Trey Songz. He's also the mastermind behind comedian Kevin Hart's redefinition as a fitness icon. He has used the same methods to help normal people, with no photoshoots or film deadlines to motivate them, lose dozens or even hundreds of pounds.

Recently, Everline talked with Bodybuilding.com about the foundations of his fat-loss approach, some of which you can put to work in any gym—or just your living room—today.

Secret 1: Do Your Push-Ups. Lots of Them.

I've heard coaches say the only problem with push-ups is that they don't look cool on Instagram. But you love them—and in numbers a lot bigger than 3 sets of 10-15. How do you use push-ups?

Push-ups take me back to what we did before we had all this equipment. I mean, I don't care what type of financial situation you're in or where you may be geographically located. One thing that's constant is what you have to use, and that's your body.

Every day, I wake up and I start my day with 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups. When I roll out of bed, I brush my teeth, and as I'm making my oatmeal and my breakfast, even before I'm going to the gym—because we do early mornings—I knock off my push-ups to mentally get ready. It takes me about 5 minutes is all, and sometimes I'll change up the variation to diamond push-ups or Hindu push-ups.

Then, I finish my day with 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups, too. And sometimes it's a little bit more. Sometimes we'll get 500 a day. I just got a text from one of my clients saying, "I'm going for 1000 sit-ups today."

Boss Everline's Hollywood Transformation Secrets

This doesn't sound like it's a purely physical ritual.

Yeah, it's all about mindset, and trying to activate the mind, really, once I get up. Because it's those small, simple disciplines that ultimately lead to the fitness level that you're trying to reach. It's those things that help you say, "Well, I did this. I'm going to go to the gym."

Secret 2: Core Strength First. The Six-Pack Will Follow.

I see you do tons of diverse core work on your Instagram page. There's lots of rotation, and plenty of med balls. What's your overriding philosophy of abdominal training?

Creating resistance in the core every day will create change. First off, we do plenty of core activation—simple, basic core activation warm-ups, rotation, whatever. That's one of the reasons why I do sit-ups in the morning when I get up. I'm learning that that's when everything starts for me. My central nervous system and body activate once I start to challenge my core. It's also easier to activate the glutes, and many other things, once the core is active.

So I do it at the beginning, and I like to do it at the end of a workout, too—because everybody wants aesthetic abs.

Secret 3: Find Work/Play Balance in the Gym

Your routines aren't just burners and beat-downs, though. I often see challenges, games, and improvisation in there. Where does play factor into what you do?

We're very focused in the gym, obviously. But we've got a work/play balance. Because people are looking for fun, and I don't want to overcomplicate what fitness is. It's really just training—just moving your body. So that's where the fun comes in, because you can't reach the consumer by being serious.

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I'm not trying to teach you how to be a bodybuilder; I'm going to teach you how to be a balanced athlete. And that's my philosophy. When you're talking about running, jumping, lifting, it all starts with having fun, and also having focus. Because you want to come back tomorrow, right? If you don't, then you're not going to have results.

Give us an example of a challenge you use to get out of the standard sets-and-reps mentality, and what's at stake.

Oh, man. We do pull-up challenges: How many can you do in a minute? Or the same for push-ups or sit-ups. Or sprint intervals. So, how long can you stay on a sprint, and what's your recovery time? I like to add competitiveness in all my clients.

Then there are the walking push-ups, where you do 1 push-up, stand up, 2 push-ups, stand up—all the way up to 15. If you can't reach 15, you definitely need to try to get to 15. And if you get to 10, what's your plan for getting better at it?

Boss Everline's Walking Push-up Challenge

1 push-up, 2 steps
2 push-ups, 2 steps
3 push-ups, 3 steps
4 push-ups, 4 steps
5 push-ups, 5 steps
6 push-ups, 6 steps
7 push-ups, 7 steps
8 push-ups, 8 steps
9 push-ups, 9 steps
10 push-ups, 10 steps
11 push-ups, 11 steps
12 push-ups, 12 steps
13 push-ups, 13 steps
14 push-ups, 14 steps
15 push-ups, 15 steps

As for what's at stake, if you lose to me, I'm going to talk so much trash. But if I lose, well, we up the ante. We create all types of bets where you've got to eat something that you hate. Or we'll bet a shake, or dinner. Or, for instance, if you win today, we go to Nike, and I'll buy you whatever new shoes you want.

Basically, we create fun. I've trained so many clients all over the world, and I think the reason why they request me is they know that I'm serious about my job, but at the end of the day, we've figured out the work/play balance in the gym. Friendly competition stimulates people.

There's no trophy at the end of the day, though, so be careful. Make sure you're doing challenges that you're capable of doing, but also do your best to wake up and tap into your inner athlete every day.

If you walk 2 miles today, challenge somebody to walk 2 miles with you, and then push them to walk 2.5. You're not trying to belittle them, but you create a competition where now you're moving.

When you start to challenge each other, you start to get better. That's the way to truly activate people.

Secret 4: Pick Up the Ropes and Embrace the Suck

I imagine that the battle ropes lend themselves to that challenge mindset.

Exactly. The battle ropes are incredible. Right there, you're talking about cardio and core, right? And there are all different types of variations. We do 30-second intervals, or 15-second intervals, where we have minimal rest. You could be in a plank. You could do plank before battle ropes. You could do jumping jacks. There are so many different things you can do with the battle ropes that activates the core.

I also love the battle ropes, because the battle ropes will show you what you're made of. If you think you're a man, get on those battle ropes. If you think you've been training cardio, and somebody tells you to give 30 seconds of jump rope on a battle rope, you'll see real fast what you are and how much work you have to put in.

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Secret 5: Don't Forget to Train Your Arms!

With all that core and cardio and everything else, it sounds like a full day. But you also seem like you always save room for some arms for dessert.

Of course! It's incredibly important to work arms, because when you put on that dress or that shirt, that's part of how you represent yourself. People are going to say, "Oh man. She works out."

Plus, I love training biceps. I hate to say it, but I just love doing curls! For example, I love to do what I call a "10-20." I do this in all my training, but I really like to do it to get a pump in my arms. So I'll grab a heavier weight and do 10 reps, and then immediately after, I'll do a lighter burn-out for 20 reps. Just grab some dumbbells, and knock off some 21s, some hammer curls, some 10-20s, and just have fun with it.