Operation Osmin returns with Miami Beach celebrity personal trainer

Osmin Hernandez won’t let anyone flake on his or her New Year’s resolution. This personal trainer is dead serious about fitness — and maybe just a little bit crazy. The Havana native got ripped while in Cuba’s revolutionary navy unit, Marina de Guerra, but was later kicked out for being mentally unfit, according to his bio. Now based in South Beach, the muscle man helps regular folks as well as such celebs as Jean Claude Van Damme, Mickey Rourke, Anna Kournikova and the Estefans, whom he met when he worked at a waiter at their restaurant, Lario’s on the Beach, in the early ’90s. Hernandez, who favors working out outdoors, specializes in turning clients into “superheroes.’’ “The world is your gym; anything can be your equipment’’ he says. “I like to run around, jump around, chase cars, run against traffic, go out swimming in the ocean at night, in a rainstorm, pull chains in the middle of the highway.’’ Osmin’s unusually intense style landed him his own nuvoTV Miami-based reality show, Operation: Osmin, returning for its second season 10 p.m. Friday. The deal: he has 30 days to get 10 overweight “recruits’’ into the shape of their lives, by any means necessary. The training is, as you’d imagine, in the most unlikely of places (even a dumpster) and the diet is just fish, salad and water. His motto is “I have to break you to make you.’’ Why does he think it’s so hard to lose weight and keep it off? It’s a problem with self-esteem. “People don’t want to cut out bad food; they don’t have confidence to take care of themselves,’’ he says. “I ask, ‘Why do you eat junk? Do you want to feel sick?’ No one wants to feel sick! They tell me they eat it because they’re busy or tired or they don’t have money. There’s always an excuse. But you have to say, ‘Stop! I’m going to take care of myself from now on.’ ’’ His best tip: Keep moving. “As many times as you can. If you can run, run. Swim. Walk. Power walk. Box. Whatever you have to do.’’ Osmin, who also acts (Che), may be a little intimidating, but he gets results. “My philosophy is different. People are afraid of me and think I’m a psycho,’’ he admits. “I’m tough, but I’m different.’’

This story was originally published January 10, 2012 at 2:01 AM with the headline "Operation Osmin returns with Miami Beach celebrity personal trainer."