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Photos courtesy of Tony Martinez.<\/em><\/p>\n Like all locals, Tony Martinez loves Long Beach. But unlike everyone else, when this health guru scored massive success by becoming the personal trainer to the likes of Janet Jackson and Britney Spears, he opted out of reasonable moves to metropolitans\u2014particularly Los Angeles\u2014in favor of keeping it Long Beach.<\/p>\n \u201cLong Beach has a vibe that I am down for: chill, happy, and just good,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n A graduate of San Diego State, Martinez moved back to his home of Long Beach after completing school and fell into a situation he calls \u201ca complete blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n Training at a gym\u2014\u201cThat was twenty years ago so I can\u2019t quite recall the name\u201d\u2014Martinez was approached by none other than a producer\u2014and not just any producer, but a straight-up, no-apologies Hollywood producer.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, you a trainer?\u201d the producer asked, with Martinez confirming. \u201cYou know Ray Liotta?\u201d<\/p>\n Martinez was a bit miffed given he had never heard of Liotta but was admittedly excited that, over the course of 1991 and 1992, he would be flying to New Zealand to train the actor for the ’90s-action-and-cheesy-awesomeness that is No Escape<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI had no idea who Ray Liotta was\u2014I just 21 or 22 years old,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cBut it was just the right place and the right time, like the universe\u2019s stars lined up\u2014and everything just took off from there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTaking off\u201d is putting it lightly: Martinez became a household name for celebrities as he began to traverse the Warner Bros. lot training actor after actress. One specific example was Val Kilmer, training for what would become the first of the much-maligned duo of Batman<\/em> films by Joel Schumacher<\/a>. However, the three-month training stint became one thanks to Kilmer\u2019s obsession with roller hockey, forcing Martinez to play more roller hockey than actually train.<\/p>\n Jackson, at the time, was at her peak: having just followed her enormously successful Janet<\/em> album, she launched one of her largest tours ever in support of The Velvet Rope<\/em> LP.<\/p>\n Spanning Europe, North America, Japan, New Zealand, Africa, and Australia, the nearly 18-month tour was not just a massive hit\u2014the airing of its appearance at Madison Square Garden<\/a> earned HBO its highest-rated program ever at the time\u2014but, like Madonna\u2019s arena shows, took athleticism to new levels. Janet even had the precociousness to have two at-the-time unknowns open for her: Justin Timberlake and his N*SYNC crew, and Usher, just off releasing his My Way<\/em> album that would catapult him into stardom.<\/p>\n And simultaneously, the tour took Martinez on an entirely new journey.<\/p>\n \u201cMy first tour ever was beyond an amazing experience,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI was only home for eleven days\u2026 And I challenged her right from the beginning: she was basically trying to continually outdo herself because she is an extremely competitive person. Her shows were anywhere from 90 minutes to two-hours so I would have to train her specifically for each show since she had no rest. Her only rest was costume changes during the show so we had to train for show after show after show using circuitry training\u2014something that really wasn\u2019t being done at the time. And luckily, I\u2019ve been with her ever since and I train her to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon after, Martinez would be connected to another massive pop star during her peak: Britney Spears. At the time, Spears had finally collaborated with her longtime icon Madonna for \u201cMe Against the Music\u201d<\/a>\u2014and it was that video that Martinez specifically trained Spears for. Even more, given he was simultaneously training P!nk, he then flew to Rome to film the famous 3-minute Spears-P!nk-Beyonc\u00e9 Pepsi commercial which featured them as Roman gladiators singing their rendition of Queen\u2019s \u201cWe Will Rock You.\u201d<\/a> Thereafter, Spears became, like Janet, a permanent fixture in Martinez\u2019s professional life. Of course, his role meant going all over Southern California but that didn\u2019t mean he hasn\u2019t successfully brought Long Beach to the stars. Janet has been to Gold\u2019s Gym on Pine\u2014\u201cShe liked it, no doubt\u201d\u2014but he has yet to get Spears to come on down.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean I am not gonna keep trying\u2014I\u2019ve told her I\u2019m gonna get her surfing,\u201d Martinez said with a laugh. \u201cY\u2019know, I work in LA and OC\u2014it\u2019s kind of required to be honest, but that doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t try to bring them down here. I call it \u2018trickeration\u2019: \u2018Why don\u2019t you come out to Long Beach? There won\u2019t be paparazzi and you can walk on the beach here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n After two decades of dealing with the stars, it is clear that Martinez will not be leaving the LBC any time soon\u2014and if naysayers try to think otherwise, Martinez shows no shame in admitting his love for all things Long Beach.<\/p>\n \u201cI just love Long Beach\u2014the whole thing about it is how artsy it is,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cIt has culture, it has values\u2026 I often compare art to your actual body: just the way that art affects you, you picture your body the way you want and you work to get it there. Just as worthy to show in a mirror as it is to hang a piece of art on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"TonyMart01\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/TonyMart01.jpg\")
Though these gigs were big, they weren\u2019t the massiveness that was his first world tour with Janet Jackson. The two met in Europe and after he trained with her for a few sessions, Janet was forthright in what she wanted: \u201cYou\u2019re not going back to the States; you\u2019re going on tour with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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