A Hard Day On The Fitness Trail
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday November 25, 1986
WOULD you allow a stranger into your home - albeit muscled, tanned and blond- to put you through an exercise program? No? Think about it. No more gym junkies narcissistically parading in front of you; no more embarrassment because you don't look as svelte as everyone else; no more agonising over your gym wardrobe (now what shade is in this week?). And just think of the status: your very own personal gym instructor! Personalised-at-home-or-office workouts are perfect if you're busy/lazy/rich (take your pick) or simply despise the cliquey gym scene. It's a service the Americans (who else!) have been enjoying for years.
Brad Warren, the 21-year-old brains and body behind what is probably Australia's first personalised fitness outfit, has been operating Fitness One On One for just three months. Via his humble, pre-loved white Econovan, Brad, who also models, brings a choice of weight-training, circuit-training, aerobics or aquafitness into the living rooms, garages and swimming pools of his clients.
Already, his steadily growing throng includes fashion designer Stuart Membery, one-half of modelling agency Chadwicks, Stuart Cameron, and hairdressers Barbara and Graham Sylvester of Sloanes, all happily paying around $30 for each 1 1/2 hour workout. Ideally, three times a week. Membery is one of Brad's greatest fans: "The beauty of it all," he says "is that you don't have to look good! I think the whole idea of personalised fitness has come out of necessity more than trend. Sydney is such an incredibly busy city, I just don't have time to go to a gym. Brad gives me the encouragement when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to do it."
Brad had dreamt about an Australian version of this American idea for years. Involved with sport all his life and an aerobic instructor since 18, he saw it as a natural choice.
"There was a lot of controversy about gyms - the services they provided, the contracts which forced people to sign their lives away ... fly-by-night operators really gave the industry a bad name," he said.
So what is it like to be fit for a living? I followed Brad for a day to find out.
The first thing you notice is food. Just how much he eats or has to eat to keep up with his energy output. First session is at 6.30 am with Sloanes'Graham and Barbara (and, unofficially, York, their 21-month-old son, who joins in for an impromptu tricycle riding session around the bench press) so nothing too heavy - coffee and grapefruit.
On our return, it's time for "real" breakfast, a huge three-egg omelette rich with pasta and bacon, a few fried sausages and toast with cherry jam. Then it's an hour spent returning calls from the answering machine (one is for a casting at George Patterson - the male lead in a cigarette commercial - so a 4 pm appointment is jotted in the diary). In between, paper work and washing up. A booker for the women's section of Chadwicks, rings to say she'll have to cancel her 10.30 am class because she hasn't recovered fully from German Measles. A likely excuse. Thanks to her illness and the extra time on our hands, this reporter's severely exercise-deprived body is forced through its first ever weight-lifting session. It hurts.
Brad insists it's good for me. I look at his biceps and decide he may know what he's talking about. From the weight room to aerobics floor, Brad, one of the regular instructors at Fitness Network, is booked for noon, and by 12.10 pm, 15 bodies, including mine, are going through the motions to the beat of Sister Sledge. You can't help noticing the glances cast Brad's way by female participants. Obviously one of the less-harmful side-effects of having a near-perfect body.
Lunch - a frozen family-sized pizza, some left-over pasta and most of a tea cake. I pass. I'm still full from breakfast. More phone messages and another cancellation. Model/actress Tracey Bennett organises a nanny once a week so that she and other fellow single mums can workout with Brad but today she can't get away from a filming job: "That," says Brad as he hangs up the phone, "is one of the pitfalls. I'm dealing with incredibly hectic people who really can't make it sometimes. That's why most of them prefer the early morning workouts. I usually drag them out of bed, they can't exactly turn me away if I'm there."
Brad decides to nap for 10 minutes before we head for North Sydney for the casting. ("Anymore than that and you fall into a deep sleep.) There's a problem, though, when we finally arrive. There's been a mix-up. Brad has the right looks but he's four years too young. Too young! Should he cultivate wrinkles?
Oh well, back to North Bondi again in time to pop a lasagne in the oven for dinner and devour six pieces of cherry jam toast and a few slices of buttered tea cake before taking "the guys" for their weekly 6.30 pm class - Philip Smith (hairdresser at Sloanes), Wayne Lewis (purchasing clerk with the Sydney City Council) and Trevor Hoskings (assistant loans officer, State Government Employees Credit Union).
Trevor, held up at work, caused a hiccup; his car was in the garage where they usually exercise and he had the only key. Philip and Wayne don't get out of it: "No problems we'll use the dining room!" So, while they slog it out with weights in their ultra-swish apartment, an electrical storm is erupting over the south of Bondi, the huge plate-glass windows providing a prime viewing spot. Just before Brad heads home to lasagne and bed, Philip explains the importance of having a personal gym instructor: "I don't like the hoo-hah, the smart costumes and the who's-got-the-biggest-bodies gym scene. I prefer to invest my money with Brad - he pushes me the way I need to be."
Fitness One On One, 304282.
© 1986 Sydney Morning Herald