**Ian Kramer demonstrates how to stay fit using a shoulder press machine. • Photos Submitted**

By Tom Victoria

Ian Kramer helps people become fit while entertaining them with humor.

The British 18 year old alternates YouTube videos, Instagram posts and TikTok clips with workouts, fitness commentaries and skits. Ian said the impetus for his presentation style was due to a realization that hit him one day.

“I really can make exercise fun,” he said.

Ian explained that showing he is enjoying himself while improving his fitness, others will realize the benefits of doing the same.

“You feel better,” he said about the result of exercising. “I’m not just telling you how to do it, I’m telling you why you should do it and it can be fun.”

Ian said doing more reps is not necessarily better or worse than less reps with more weight or resistance.

“Find what works for you,” he said. “I like to do less than 12 reps to avoid getting bored.”

Ian said some exercises isolate body parts such as biceps while others are compound in nature, impacting large muscle groups.

He stressed the key to changing body weight is not what many people believe.

“It is important that you’re eating the right foods most of the time,” Ian said. “A good rule of thumb is to be eating healthy 80 percent of the time. For weight loss, it’s also important that you watch how much you eat. It’s how much you consume compared to how much you burn. You have to burn more calories than you eat. ”

Ian recommends people improve their health by changing their habits, such as doing more walking.

“Fitness is basically a mindset,” he said.

Ian advised people to keep treats out of sight or, better yet, out of the house altogether.

Along with deadlifts and bench presses, Ian’s content includes handstands, physical challenges and demonstrating his skills as a “fruit ninja” breaking fruit with his body.

**Ian plunges into the water at Tenby, Wales.**

His commentary pieces include assessing whether movie actors’ drastic body transformations for roles were due to natural means or artificially enhanced. He examined Christian Bale’s drastic switch from anorexic for one film to bulky by the time he was Batman, Liam Hemsworth’s gain in mass to play Marvel’s Thor and former teen heartthrob Zac Efron going from fit to bodybuilder for the movie remake of the cheesy television show Baywatch.

Speaking of superheroes, Ian’s skits often incorporate the comic book characters turned movie protagonists. In one video, Ian is visited by his version of the Caped Crusader coming through the window. Another depicts Ian gaining the thunder god’s powers through his enchanted Uru hammer Mjolnir.

Since being an Oxfordshire youth, Ian has had a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

“I always try to entertain people,” he said.

At times, that’s gotten him into hot water. In primary school, Ian danced in the hallway to amuse the students stuck in class.

“They looked quite bored,” he said.

During a school trip to a Belgium World War II trench display, Ian decided to try out a fire extinguisher. He was surprised at how much of a mess that makes.

“It was a hefty fine as well,” Ian said.

A veteran in front of the camera, Ian has been posting YouTube videos since 2013. He started out with quite the variety of imaginative themes.

“How to do brain surgery,” he said, describing one of his demonstrations.

For nearly a year, Ian has focused content on fitness.

Ian had a good foundation for athletic endeavors, playing rugby, tennis and European football, which is known by another name in America.

“I refuse to call it soccer,” Ian said about America’s name for the sport so as not to confuse it with American Football, which spends a fraction of each game having feet touch the ball.

Ian suggested the American game be called “egg ball” due to the shape of the pigskin.

Sports are what inspired Ian to focus more on fitness as an early teen.

“I thought I could get stronger for football,” he said.

**Ian does a handstand by the Radcliffe Camera building at the University of Oxford.**

But fitness exercising soon became a passion in itself.

“I’m actually liking it,” Ian recalled thinking.

He is now up to benching 105 kilograms, or more than 231 pounds.

“It gets addictive,” Ian said.

Although he teaches fitness to youths, he does not plan on making a career of coaching people one-on-one. However, he is working on a clothing brand and possibly an online community.

“I had a slight idea, not really in the works,” Ian said about the online discourse.

His penchant for filmmaking will expand this summer with a short film he is producing with a friend.

“It’s a psychological thriller,” Ian said, explaining it involves unrequited love between friends that takes a disturbing turn. “It’s a fun little plot,” he said.

For those wanting to become more fit, Ian’s recommendation is to not put it off for another day.