My journey as a personal trainer in Toronto

A personal trainer in Toronto tells their tale

I thought it might be nice to take a moment and introduce myself. More specifically to tell the tale (briefly and leaving out alllll the drama) about how I came to be a full-time personal trainer in Toronto. I’ve cycled through a few careers prior to getting here. I was a pro wrestler until injuries permanently took me out, I worked in restaurants and cafes for ages, including owning my own juice bar for a while. I kinda always knew I’d end up here though….kinda.

At 28, after retiring from pro wrestling (for the first time) I knew that I wanted to become a yoga teacher. And after about 12 years I was finally in a place to commit to that in a meaningful way. I had to get a second job to pay for the schooling and for about five months I worked every day, with many days being in the 12-14 hour range. In that period I had five days off total. It was a bit of a journey but well worth it.

A personal trainer in Toronto first goes to yoga school

I attended Octopus Garden’s 200hr teacher training that September and the following September I began their 300hr advanced teacher training. It was awesome. There was a lot of stress and I can’t say the whole ordeal was perfect or anything but holy man am I glad I did it. It was really intense and really eye-opening and I made a lot of great connections and friendships. I still miss coming in on those cold Saturday or Sunday mornings on our weekend intensives.

And some Queer personal training seeds are planted

A couple of important bits happened during this time that began leading me to where I am today. In a sense it began the minute I walked into the main practice space on the first night of classes. That door closed and I realized I was surrounded by cis-straight people. Having not been in straight spaces seriously for a number of years at that point, it was shocking and… disturbing. Not to dis straight folks but I was no longer used to (or frankly interested in) being surrounded by them.

Another bit that began creeping in pretty early was the gnawing sense that I was in an industry overflowing with people who wanted to make a living at it. Getting ahead was going to be incredibly challenging if not downright impossible. I liked my yoga studio, but I didn’t see a lot of opportunity there and frankly, there weren’t a lot of places I wanted to work. There’s been a vibe with yoga for a long time that I just can’t get with. Too much Starbucks vibes (among other glaring issues lol). I like my pumpkin spice latte as much as the next basic bitch but I don’t want my yoga to be quite as sweet or vapid.

And so the grass grows (from bb yogi to personal trainer)

So those two important bits ambled on and I also began to realize that a lot of people that I was hanging out with didn’t go to yoga studios at all. In fact they really didn’t like them.

Now I started at yoga when there were no yoga studios. At least not any where I was. And likely not many in the bigger cities. When I started we would meet in the local art gallery after hours with a yogi. And we’d do our thing. No one was trying to sell us props. Or a retreat. So it never occurred to me that most people were introduced to yoga through these yoga studios.

This all made me adamant about creating spaces that were Queer and really Queer welcoming. My friends were being turned off at how straight and bougie the spaces were and I totally got where they were coming from. I didn’t have any time for that either. So I began running a Queer and Trans Yoga class out of Octopus Garden. It was awesome. It helped change the space and welcomed in new people. It was my baby and I loved it. Sadly, it did not have an opportunity to last for long as the Pandemic soon came. I have run classes infrequently since then but it’s not the same. I remain open for the right opportunity to do more with that to come around and say hi.

All of this also caused me to move into personal training a lot more quickly than I likely would have otherwise. I knew I’d always be a personal trainer as well as a yoga teacher but what I didn’t know was that I really didn’t want to be a yoga teacher. Not like that. Not full time. Like at this point I can enjoy teaching maybe two yoga classes a month and that’s about it. Personal training on the other hand: I can do that all day. But when it came down to it - it was a very cramped market of wannabe yoga teachers and I got burned out pretty fast with it. I had been doing some personal training and loving it. The switch-up was obvious.

And a Queer personal trainer in Toronto is born

So that’s me. I’m excited about where I am at and where things are headed. It’s taken a lot to get here and that’s thanks to you! So thank you!! Thanks for hanging around and checking me out and lovin me and being such an incredible community. You all make work reaaaal easy.