Hands up all those who have resolved to get fit and healthy this year? Me too.
Knowing I needed to up my physical activity game, I started Carlo Petrini’s Topanga Circuit Workout twice a week two months ago. And it’s working. I have more energy, I’m sleeping better, and I don’t think I’m imagining it when I say my stomach is flatter.
An integrative sports medicine trainer incorporating body work and athletic training as well as qigong, yoga and breath work, Carlo Petrini explains his health and fitness philosophy with TNT readers.
Let’s start with a reminder why exercise is good for us. “Exercise fights degeneration and gravity that’s working against us as we age,” said Carlo. “So exercise keeps you strong, especially when you’re doing it properly. It keeps you upright and restores posture.
“Exercise is also good for your mind. It has all kinds of mental health applications through dopamine production like regulating your mood and emotional well-being. And don’t underestimate the benefits of exercising in a community, with other people.”
There are plenty of studies that show being active and physical is a major marker for health and happiness. And in case you need more convincing to get up and moving, exercise is the number-one thing you can do to help stave off Alzheimer’s.
There can be a downside to exercise if it’s not done properly. “There has to be a progression with exercise. Start off gently. If you start with Olympic-level training from day one, you will get injured and end up in pain,” said Carlo. “The aim with exercise is to get fitter, healthier, stronger, and develop muscle.”
Carlo’s classes include resistance work using straps and elastic bands that he provides. He also insists on regular water breaks. “Hydration is enormously important during workouts. And you must eat sensibly and healthily if you want to be fit and strong.”
How much to exercise a week depends on your personal goals, but Carlo says walking every day is good. And resistance training can be done four to six times a week.
Carlo’s first teacher and mentor, Doctor Vincent Medici, taught him the importance of biochemistry and biomechanics on our basic structure and our psyche. “Which I’ve come to see as a combination of emotions, mental health, spirituality, and your energy in general.”
Born in San Francisco of Italian heritage, Carlo moved to Santa Monica in 2004, then to Topanga in 2020. In true Topanga fashion, weight lifting in his outdoor classes are done using rocks, which is funny because Petrini means stone or rock in Italian.
Carlo has always trained individual clients in and around Topanga, but also had a partnership with a physical therapy clinic in the Palisades, giving rehabilitative massage and athletic training in the small gym and therapy clinic. When that place burned down in the 2025 fire, Carlo started Topanga Circuit Workouts.
“The reason I charge just $15 a class is primarily as a way to give back to the community that I love so much. Topanga has welcomed me very generously and given me so much support and love, both personally and professionally.
“I want my classes to be a community hub where anyone has access to it and has the ability to maximize the benefit of it by coming consistently. I let people know that if they really can’t afford $15, that no one is turned away for lack of funds.
“Community has a huge value and it is absolutely energizing and rewarding for me to teach here. I have enough high-end individual clients that allow me to offset the cost.”
The poster boy for the Topanga Circuit Workouts is Brando Farr, who was already a strong man through lifting heavy kettle bells with high intensity for many years before he started Carlo’s class.
“Brando found his way to my class as his joints were starting to sustain injuries, and his body was becoming unstable from the negative strain his previous training was putting on his body. He started training with me and learned the proper progressions through the different levels of strength. He learned this all by coming to class.
“He soon found his injuries were diminishing, and he was feeling overall much stronger and more stable to move heavier weight properly. And to his surprise, his muscles got much bigger and more developed through the style of training I provide in my class. He was able to build an impressive physique with bigger muscles.
“Although it’s not about getting big and muscular, Brando was able to do that in my class in a self-loving, smart way that actually healed his body, and made him stronger in the end.”
Brando Farr was born and raised in Topanga Canyon. He has worked most of his adult life as either a cook/chef, landscape or day laborer, in and out of construction, and as a naturalist guide and educator specializing in wild mushrooms.
“The first things I noticed about Carlo’s classes,” said Brando, “were that they were diverse, creative and grounded in cutting-edge understanding. He uses techniques devoted to restoration, stretching, lubricating joints, increasing qi flow and multi-layered strengthening of the whole body. Every class is always different, always new, always healing and beneficial.”
It was life-changing for Brando to learn from Carlo that most old injuries can be rehabilitated with the right approach. “I’m now stronger, more resilient and more confident than I have felt in over 15 years,” said Brando.
Carlo Petrini’s own story confirms the healing power of exercise and training. “I’m a twin,” said Carlo. “My brother and I had some birth complications in the womb. I had a lack of oxygen as I was developing and we had some traumas that led to an early birth.
“As I grew older, my legs weren’t working properly. While my brother was crawling, I was just scooting using my arms. A neurologist said the lack of oxygen in the womb gave me a mild form of cerebral palsy.”
This created rigidity and tension in Carlo’s body. He had also been badly positioned in the womb, resulting in neck problems. Combined with sports injuries in school, and a weak spine inherited from his parents, this meant a lot of pain while Carlo was growing up. But thanks to rehabilitation techniques and body work, he was able to create normalization of his muscle tone.
“I wouldn’t say everything is fully resolved. I do experience neck issues and body pain sometimes when I push myself too much, but I probably work out four times a week and am definitely the best version of myself I could possibly be under the circumstances, thanks to exercise and physical training.”
As well as the twice-weekly Topanga Circuit Workouts for $15 a session, Carlo charges $125 for individual training and $200 an hour for advanced sports massage body work that can heal severe and old painful injuries in one to four sessions.
The Topanga Circuit Workouts are Wednesdays outside a private home on TCB at 8:30 am and Fridays at 9:00 am outside near the community center. Both weather permitting. If I can be ready for exercise this early in the morning, anyone can.
I’ll give Brando the last word. “Carlo has a tremendous heart and a beautiful, giving energy. He believes the service you offer your community is the service you offer yourself — one of love, care and elevation. He genuinely takes an interest in people’s lives and their wellbeing.”
Carlo Petrini can be reached on 310 430 3268.
