Aside from giving his students practical workout advice — drink lots of water, follow your own pace, tie your shoelaces properly — fitness instructor Demetrius Brandon makes sure to mix in motivational tips, too.

The Leeward YMCA strength trainer and aerobic instructor constantly tells his students: Don't give up. It's OK to take a break and begin again when you're ready. It's all about you; we're not competing against each other.

"Because I love my job, I look forward to going to work, and I look forward to giving them nurturing words," said Brandon, 46, of Kailua.

It's a way to lift his students up — spirit, soul and body, said Brandon, who teaches circuit training and total body conditioning classes.

"(People) come to the YMCA for us to set them free, if you will, from anything temporarily depressing them or stressing them," he said. "They come to us for that outlet, to set them free from a hard day's work."

Working out is a great way to be set free, Brandon said. And he would know. Physical fitness has been a way of life since his early teens, thanks to his dad, a former basketball coach at a Hickam Air Force Base gym and a former referee of community flag football and basketball teams.

His dad taught him about the importance of stretching and warming up before getting into a routine, and how to be disciplined — lessons he passes on to students.

Brandon's workout routine also includes jogging and practicing monkey kung fu — his "favorite passion, besides aerobics," he said.

Whether doing kung fu or teaching one of his fitness classes, Brandon always tries to find a way to get in a good workout.

"I love the feeling that I get from it: the natural high, the blood pumping, the sweat," Brandon said.

DEMETRIUS BRANDON

Age: 46

Profession: strength trainer and aerobic instructor

Residence: Kailua

Height: 4-feet-10

Weight: 133 pounds

Stays in shape by: jogging, doing aerobics and practicing monkey kung fu, a Chinese art of self-defense

Fitness goal: "To maintain a healthy mind, spirit and body"

Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com.