Julius Naranjo

Julius Irvin Hikaru T. Naranjo is the eldest son of a Filipino father and Japanese mother and has 3 younger siblings.

Naranjo had earned his Bachelor of Sciences in Exercise Science & Health Promotions with a minor in Nutrition at the University of Guam in 2013.

Naranjo had represented Guam's National Weightlifting Team and is a record holder in the old 69kg weight category.[1] He had represented Guam at the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games[2] in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan competing in the 62kg weight category.[3][4]  

A career-ending back injury forced Naranjo's retirement.

After retiring from competitive weightlifting, Naranjo turned to coaching. During his athletic career, Naranjo was also managing a functional fitness facility and physical therapy clinic, where he had coached classes and did strength & conditioning for various clients including students and Guam national athletes.

Naranjo as of 2020, is currently a weightlifting coach, strength & conditioning coach, and team manager for Team HD,[5] the Olympic Core team for Hidilyn Diaz[6] who is preparing to compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo which is now postponed to July 2021.[7]

Naranjo and Hidilyn Diaz, along with their Head Coach Kaiwen Gao are currently training in Malaysia[8] as lockdowns and the current situation of COVID-19 around the world have created a difficult situations for all Olympic Bound athletes. They have been featured on TFC News[9] with an update of their current situation and how they are continuing to train towards the 2021 Olympics.

Naranjo also does remote coaching for weightlifting athletes and has built a good following from his coaching and weightlifting videos with more than 20,000 followers on his Instagram.[10]

Aside from being a coach, Naranjo is also a filmmaker who co-founded the Collective Culture[11] and also promotes the sport of weightlifting on Instagram and Facebook.

Naranjo had worked for just over a year as a production artist and had been a Director of Photography for a number of productions[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] with Docomo Pacific, a telecommunication company based in Guam.

Naranjo and Hidilyn Diaz have collaborated through Collective Culture to help spread her advocacy by spreading awareness of weightlifting by creating documentaries such as Move to Inspire[19][20] and Lifters for Lifters.[21]

Naranjo has recently collaborated with Malaysian/Filipino singer Yazmin Aziz as a filmmaker for her news segment on TFC News Asia and aiding with a number of projects for her music.[22][23][24][25][26]

Naranjo is currently dating Hidilyn Diaz and both had been featured together in various Philippine television programs. This includes an episode of Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho in GMA where their romantic relationship was featured.[27] They were also featured on Sports U[28] and Magandang Buhay[29] of ABS-CBN. Naranjo is also Diaz's assistant weightlifting and strength and conditioning coach helping Diaz potentially clinch the Philippines' first Olympic gold medal.[30]