Revolutionizing Personal Training in Chennai India | Become a QUALIFIED SUF-CPT anywhere in the world

Discover the secrets behind the remarkable transformation of two Chennai-based trainers, Big S and Big J, as they journey from social service to fitness revolutionaries. Their tale is not just about crafting personalized programs and innovative bodyweight training, but also about their unique approach to equipment creation. These craftsmen are redefining what it means to be fit in their community, balancing early morning sessions with daily responsibilities and proving that dedication can indeed spur a fitness uprising. 

Venture into the evolving world of India's fitness industry with us as we dissect the contrast between rural martial arts traditions and the modern urban gym culture. The conversation turns to the sprawling impact of online fitness communities and the necessity for professional certifications. We ponder the effects of a free market in fitness, where innovation leads to specialized services that attract a diverse clientele. This episode goes beyond workouts; it's an exploration of how entrepreneurs like Big S and Big J are reimagining the wellness landscape to make quality fitness accessible to all.

Wrapping up, we chart the roadmap to a comprehensive wellness hub that aims to integrate fitness with social well-being. As Big S and Big J share their vision for a space that serves the underserved, we discuss the strategic moves for networking and attracting investors to turn this dream into reality. We also underscore the importance of customizing training strategies, recognizing that each individual's peak performance is a blend of physiological and psychological readiness. If you're a fitness professional or enthusiast looking to be inspired or seeking insights into India's burgeoning fitness scene, this episode is your front-row ticket.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness podcast. We're great. Personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry. One qualified trainer in time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you wanna become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showupfitnesscom. Also, make sure to check out my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Howdy everybody. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:32

Today we're having a three way. We have big S and big J from India. They're going to share their story, how they know each other, how they came across show up. We're gonna talk a little bit about the. It's kind of a big country 1.4 billion, a couple of people right and I think it's just so cool how we've been able to connect through social media. And one of the rules that Danny has in your social media class, which is gonna be starting up here soon April 2nd and 3rd is that you can't say you hate social media, because if I already take that victim mentality, I wouldn't be here right now with two awesome hunks going over what it's like to be a trainer in India. So I wanna learn more about what your day is like your full-time job, where you wanna be. How you two know each other. How you came across, show up, let's start talking. Thanks for showing up.

Speaker 2: 1:23

Definitely. It's a great pleasure to be on the podcast with you, chris. Really, one and I came across Jitesh in back in 2018. So we are predominantly social service volunteers and we went to plant trees in our locality and that's how we met each other and since then, we have been working out together, we have been playing together and recently started this venture, in the last year, of taking fitness classes to people in our locality, and that's how we ended up in this industry, because we have been training ourselves and we thought why not help others too? So that's how we got into this.

Speaker 1: 1:58

That's so cool and I first got to learn about that box that you made. You have a box that says keep showing up Yep, Come like that. Did you make that?

Speaker 2: 2:08

Yeah, I learned some carpentry back in my school days, so I used to do it as a hobby. So then I thought I have to make it as a tribute to you and keep showing up. Had to go there on the box.

Speaker 1: 2:21

That's so cool and you've done some really neat stuff with your ability to weld and you made a pretty cool little pull up bar and everything. So I love watching you guys' journey. So we'll have to make sure to put your social medias in there and I'll tag you so people can follow you and see what it's like. But I really just want to dive into what is the market like in India, because you're in Chennai, which is about 20 plus million people. I was driving back from Santa Monica today to where I live it's about an hour away, and I was pricing out flights just for fun, to see what it would be from LA to Chennai. You'd have to go to Hong Kong first, which is a good 16 hour flight, and then you'd hop on another one to Chennai, which is about another two, two and a half hours. So now, right now, I'm in California and it's 9.45 AM. What time is it? We're all at.

Speaker 2: 3:13

It's 10 PM here.

Speaker 1: 3:15

Yeah, so we're literally on different sides of the world. I'm in the morning, you're at night. You're probably like this guy has way too much caffeine for me. I need to go to bed and start my day tomorrow, so take me through what a normal day is like for you, because this is a part time thing now as a trainer, but you want to transition it into a full time thing, right?

Speaker 2: 3:35

Yeah, so our day starts at 5 AM, so we have a morning batch which extends across to us, where sports person and also some elders above 30, they all come in for getting a training under us.

Speaker 2: 3:50

To tell you about the venue, it's basically a turf where people play football or cricket and we have rented it out and, as you said, we have prepared our own equipment which are necessary for training people.

Speaker 2: 4:01

Mostly it's body weight training and that's how we get started with anybody who is new to fitness and once they're comfortable with that, we add weights to all the body weight training. That's how we focus on the program and, as you'd have already known, and after 7 AM we have a huge time to work on our background activities, be it designing diet programs or be it helping clients with progress tracking, be it follow ups all those goes into that and all those show up. Fitness research comes into that timeframe and the next slot is actually in the evening, which is 6.30 to 8 PM. That is where we have a lot of youth clients coming in. It's an exciting slot where we are training sports and also people who are very enthusiastic about calisthenics as well, and there are a lot of fat loss objective clients as well. So that's how our day will be, and our workouts and our stretching and our routine comes inside these hours.

Speaker 1: 5:02

So then, how did you come across? Show up fitness?

Speaker 2: 5:07

Oh, that's really a surprise actually. So Jitesh and I were doing a lot of research on what certification to be done and we were almost fixed to take up NASL. And then, like in Easter egg, we got your video on YouTube, where we were just planning to just study something about programming and then pops up show up fitness and Chris. And then that's how we dug deeper through your website and once we started that programming video, we knew that this is the place where we want to learn. So initially we thought we're just going to watch your videos through YouTube and learn stuff, but then we were like surprised to know that there's a course specifically based on what we're looking at. So that was a great surprise to us and I'm very grateful for that. Jitesh would say the same.

Speaker 3: 5:59

Yeah, the belt buckle was very iconic.

Speaker 1: 6:03

The belt buckle grabbed your attention. You're like who is this crazy American? What the fuck are they doing over there?

Speaker 2: 6:10

To be honest, chris, initially you came across to me as a crazy professional, but then, the moment you got into that technical stuff, we knew that it is under this fitness community that we need to train ourselves and gain this knowledge and confidence, to train elders, to train youth with confidence. That's the main aspect here. That is the huge benefit that we got after doing the course. So, yep, that's how we came across. Show of fitness.

Speaker 1: 6:42

I love it and that's across the board. It doesn't matter whether if you're in the north, the south, the east or the west it comes to. Our profession is helping people and wherever you go, you want to feel and absorb their confidence. If you have a professional, whether if it's in the hair industry or computer industry, and they don't have that confidence, there's going to be hesitation. And we hear so much today. So many people will have doubt working with that professional because they don't get that confidence. And how do you gain confidence? You're not going to get it from reading a fucking textbook. It's interesting to me because ACSM and ACE are really big in the emerging markets, but Nassim is doing a good job of getting in front of you as well. How did you ultimately come across Nassim? Or because you're familiar with ACE and ACSM? Those are also really big ones that you see a lot in India. So how did you choose, or why were you choosing Nassim versus ACE, versus ACSM?

Speaker 2: 7:41

So Jitesh initially had good contact with a physiotherapist. As you would know, jitesh is a bad player, so he has been working along with a physiotherapist who is also a strengthened conditioning coach. So it is mainly through him that we got awareness about the certifications out there, the necessary certifications out there. But then we had seen certain trainers who have done NASM. We have seen it on BIOS and we have seen them train too. So we were kind of sceptic about how NASM is going to be. You go to the website and you have no clue about what's going to be the course, what's going to be the program, what are we going to learn out of it, the outcomes? We were very unsure about it and luckily we came across show fitness. So it's mainly through social media, I would say, and also through the networks that we have.

Speaker 1: 8:31

That's great to hear those stories because ultimately, at the end of the day, it's about action and whether, if you're trying to lose weight, if you're trying to gain muscle, you need to act on it. And so you know, our goal is to be the nascent, the ace to the eye, as I said, that ubiquity when people think I want to become a trainer. And you know what? There's something in the back of my head. I got this monkey on my back that reading a textbook isn't going to do it for me. You need that hands on. I mean, you know let's use like a computer analogy. Could you imagine only reading about how a computer works without actually getting and using that hands on side of it? And so the application is what's missing for most trainers and ultimately most trainers quit because they don't have the confidence and they don't know how to help people who have a cricket or badminton background, or someone who is at a desk all day, or a kid. They only know how to train themselves.

Speaker 1: 9:23

And it's so important to understand human movement. And when you get into the weeds of programming and anatomy and assessments and you take a look at the whole thing, it's not that challenging to separate yourself from the quote unquote saturated market and you see that a lot in India. It sounds like where you look at other trainers, they have their NASM, they're doing weird shit to both soup balls and they're scaring people by teaching them that they're fragile. Oh, you work at a desk all day. You got to make sure to correct these overactive muscles. But when you understand movement you can train anybody and then you help them get stronger and then you tailor it for those individuals or if it's a group, and then you can really help a ton of people. So I love hearing that and, you know, love seeing your guys as success.

Speaker 1: 10:08

Now, where do you want to be in the next couple of years? Do you want to have your own spot? Let's talk about the market in India when it comes to gyms. Do they have a lot of boutique gyms like we have it? Show up where it's like less than 2000 square feet. Are there a lot of orange theories? Are there like the small group training? What is it like and what do you all want to do?

Speaker 2: 10:29

Yep, there are a lot of huge gyms as well, the corporate gyms you would say. So you have 45 planet fitness, any time fitness. They're all big in India here and before talking about them, I would definitely mention FITTR. If you had come across, you would know that they are the biggest online fitness community in the world and they have transformed around 300,000 clients. They have reached their fitness goal and they are currently guiding around 3 million clients who are looking to transform themselves. They are predominantly a fitness community which helps in transformation and they have 122 employees and they are helping clients across the country.

Speaker 2: 11:08

So the founder of FITTR is Chitendra Chowkasi, so he has been in the industry for a lot of years. Even nasdaily got trained under him. So there are these huge players who are keeping the professionalism and the standard going up and above the bar set by international standards. But then there are these gyms and small gyms, I would say which are scattered across this, metropolitan cities predominantly, where there's not much of a mandate that your trainers have to be qualified or certified. Indian government law doesn't require that. Of course, government sports bodies require their trainers to be qualified and certified, but that jurisdiction doesn't extend to the private sector. That's unfortunate.

Speaker 2: 11:59

I would really wish that fitness industry becomes an organized sector in India soon, so that it gets regulated, so anyone can become a fitness trainer if the gym hires you. So that's the case here. So from my experience and Jitya's experience, I can tell you that most of the gym trainers are basically someone who just put on some muscle. So they have been into a training program and they have participated in a local competition or so, and then they are trainers because they have spent a lot of time in transforming themselves, so they would like to stay in that and get the revenue out of it. So then you would understand the level of qualification that they would have. Of course, there are these tiny certifications as well, I would say, which are not up to the mark. So this is the split up in which you will see fitness spread across predominantly, mainly in the urban area of the country. The rural parts has its own varieties of fitness, mostly martial arts based. That's how they go about it, and I think the rural parts Sorry, go ahead man.

Speaker 2: 13:09

Yeah, in the rural parts people are mostly fit because they are doing a lot of physical activity compared to the urban. So I think the urban parts need to focus more.

Speaker 3: 13:23

Like I said in the, community.

Speaker 1: 13:24

that Sorry go ahead Sorry.

Speaker 2: 13:26

In the community that we're living. We have 130,000 people, but you can hardly spot maximum of 20 to 30 gyms which are present in this area, In close proximity, I would say.

Speaker 1: 13:40

That's fascinating. So there's a ton of opportunity, and I'll actually address what you were saying earlier, because I actually prefer the free market and the fact that there isn't regulation, because if there is regulation it depends on who's going to outbid one another for that lead. So let's pretend you have 10 government approved companies who are vying for that approval process it could be one of these big box certifying agencies and they win because they have the money and then everyone has to do it that way, and so the fact that there isn't that government mandate. That's exciting, because you look at the market and you go holy shit, there's a bunch of jacked Indian dudes who are on roids and they're calling themselves trainers working at these big box gyms. Well, I don't want that.

Speaker 1: 14:27

I want to be that sector that recognizes that we are working with the affluent population. We're charging more because we're working with physios, we're working with doctors, we're working with nurses, we're medical professionals. If you want to go work with some dipshit over here, who's all jacked up and you don't know what you're doing, that's fine. But you come to me because we look more alike and I'm in better shape than you as the client. But most clients don't want to look like that juiced up meat head. They want to go to someone who can speak the language of proper movement and getting them out of pain. And you have the lawyer, the teacher, the professor whoever it may be who wants to play badminton or cricket or whatever on the weekend. That's the weekend warrior event that they want to focus on. They're going to go to you because they're intimidated by that other guy.

Speaker 1: 15:13

So you can really quarter the market in the sense that you gain the experience. It sounds like your full-time job right now, just paying the bills. It's getting you to raise some finances. You could put aside 10%, 20%, 30% of that, continue to save. And then you start opening up smaller gyms, kind of similar to what we have at show up, and then what you have is you're quartering the market and you open it up in the large cities. And if there's only 150 in a town of 150,000, there's huge opportunities there to open up more.

Speaker 1: 15:47

And if you want to get into the business side, that is just from the entrepreneurial spirit in meat. It doesn't mean you have to go that way. But when you're a smart, educated go-getter like both of you, you're able to look at it and say, ok, well, that person may be intimidated, but that's not my market. And so it's like in the States, everyone's a bunch of fucking fat asses, everyone's. We're a giant, giantly obese nation and everyone's going to fast food. Not, people aren't healthy. So I'm not going to look at the fast food and be like, oh, that's competition. You look at, that's great, sustainable, healthy food, the whole foods, and we can build a brand in that way. And when people come around and they understand the value of eating healthy, that's going to blossom. And education and movement is definitely the foundation. But having a unique business opportunity, business idea where you're not necessarily competing with the meatheads, you're able to get into a part of the market that is as a blue sea, as they call it, tons of opportunity.

Speaker 2: 16:56

Well said, chris. I will definitely second you on that. And if you look at the scope here in India, especially in gyms, you would definitely understand that the trainers are predominantly looking to convert the clients who have just taken up the gym membership into personal training. So that's the primary objective of every trainer in every gym in here in India. But what happens because of that is clients are left out, those who are not interested to pay additional amount or money for personal training. They are left out. They are basically not guided at all and they end up with injuries or they end up being inconsistent because of the lack of accountability and training.

Speaker 2: 17:39

So that's how people quit the gyms that are mainly present in our city. So Jitesh and I were actually conducting a survey among people from public places, in parks, and we were able to understand the amount of dissatisfaction that people have towards going to a typical gym where you have to pay separately for the subscription, then pay separately for the personal training, then pay separately for the diet guidance. By the time they pay all of those things, they are not able to sustain for a long time, maybe for three months. They pay for PT, and paying for PT is very rare here in India because it's very costly. How much does a lot of dissatisfaction?

Speaker 1: 18:21

How much does going to a physical therapist cost? Like if I were to have some shoulder pain or low back pain and I wanted to go to a physio. What does that look like? What does that process look like in India?

Speaker 2: 18:33

Here. Initially people will go to the orthodontist where they will be an in-house physiotherapist, so that's how it will be. So the doctor charges a separate consulting fee of about 500 to 1,000 rupees, depending on the location of the clinic. If it's a metropolitan city, it's a minimum of 500 to 1,000 rupees and that would be approximately $10 to $12. And then the treatment costs are again additional If there are physio sessions again $10 to $12 on that. And then meds are very costly when it comes to ortho. So that's the cost that they would be spending for just one session and one consultation.

Speaker 1: 19:17

Interesting and personal training. That market isn't really well established. There's not a lot of careers that are driven specifically by training. It sounds like this is something that is definitely emerging. It's growing and when would you like to potentially make that step where you go from your full-time career and technology to making this your full-time thing? Is that something that is possible? Will people pay for it? Is it? What's your biggest fear behind that?

Speaker 2: 19:48

So Jutesh and I have basically planned to form a wellness community. Instead of keeping it as a fitness community, we're planning to bring the other pillars of wellness into it and we are planning to do it in the near future, I would say about a year. So we are planning to get our own spot as well, and things are quite costly being in our metropolitan city. So we are exploring opportunities to get a spot for ourselves where we can conduct a fitness program and also social activities which will give that holistic package to the people. Because people are looking for that package and they're not getting it anywhere from gyms. They don't even get a personalized approach if they are not paying tons of money towards personal training, so where are they going to get the other aspects of wellness delivered to them?

Speaker 2: 20:37

So the goal that we have taken up is basically to help people get better with their life. So we want to address all pillars of well being, not just fitness aspect. So we will be stepping into that community in near future, like I said, and it would basically not be like the model which the gym follows, where you capitalize on every aspect of service that you provide. So we will mostly keep it as a single membership and provide all the services that we are planning to provide under that single membership.

Speaker 1: 21:13

All right, then now are there such things as like high end country clubs or gyms that are high end, that maybe more of the upper echelon of society will go to. So, like in the States, here we have equinox, where if you were to go to a planet fitness it's going to be 10, 15 bucks, but if you go to an equinox it's going to be 20 times that. Are there established businesses in India that are known for being more high end in the fitness space?

Speaker 2: 21:45

Yep, so every metropolitan city is filled with that. So I was mentioning the gyms which are cheaper than that. So there are a lot of elite gyms where, of course, rich people are everywhere and they can afford to even pay 15 to 20 K per month just for PT, and certain places are even more costly than that, and they have all these retreats, they go for trekking, they go for adventure activities together. So all those are not part of the gym subscription or the program that they're offering. So all those are separate costs. There are, of course, the elites who are paying all those things, but if you look at the main population, it's mostly the middle class, the upper middle class. So we are trying to target them because they are left out, with lack of opportunities to take care of their health and work on their wellbeing.

Speaker 1: 22:36

So from the business side of it, is this going to be a profit or non-profit business?

Speaker 2: 22:40

Yeah, so initially we are planning to do it as a profitable business. If, in future, if we are able to sustain ourselves with the revenue that we are able to generate, we really insist on starting training for people who are under privileged, so we like to take fees from the rich and subsidize it for the poor, or even conduct it for free for the enterprise. So that's how we are planning to do it in the near future.

Speaker 1: 23:08

So what I would challenge you to look into is do you have memberships right now in high end gyms?

Speaker 2: 23:14

You guys used to go to a gym, so he would tell you on that. I have never been to a gym more than six months.

Speaker 3: 23:19

So yeah, chris, I've been to a gym for a year and it was not an high end gym, it was, again a local gym, it was in our community. So high end gyms, we can name it a few, the high end gyms here at SLAM and a few other gyms. The thing is, these gyms again, there is a mix of population, like you said there, equinox or other high-end gyms. There are such gyms, but the number of such gyms are quite few here. So it's mostly where People are able to pay the amount, pay the yearly fee. It is affordable, but there is no accountability there. So these gyms are trying as such.

Speaker 1: 24:14

So what I would, I would look into from the business side of it and take this with a grain of salt. But I'm again coming from the. The entrepreneurial spirit is trying to surround yourself with people who would potentially be able to Buy into like a partnership with you. So if you go to these gyms and you're working out and you just take think of it as this is an investment in my future I'm gonna spend six months three times a week going to the gym. You're not going there specifically with the intent to find someone, but you're going there to work out and be in that just that, the arena of the entrepreneurial spirit. And so then you're gonna start talking to people and they said what do you do? I'm a trainer, I'm starting my own business. You know, I have a great business mentor in America and we're looking at ways that we can really, you know, drive a market within the middle class and lower class.

Speaker 1: 25:11

And you start just kind of talking through those ideas, because right now it's you two going back and forth with these ideas. And so when you start talking to someone else, you're gonna get that third perspective and they can give you some really good pointers a but they may be be able to and be interested Into financially backing you. So then you have some funds that come in, you can try that out, implement a strategy and then, you know, scale that to a larger level and, especially because the need is there and you know, you two are very, very intelligent and you're enjoying what you're doing. But if that business side is Something that you haven't tapped into, there is that fear. But you have the idea now. The capital that could come from a Partner or someone who you link up with at one of these locations is exactly what would help take that to the next level.

Speaker 2: 25:56

Yep, that's a great idea of that, which we haven't yet explored. We have been networking with the people who are interested into you know. You know in kind of invest for a wellness community, but we are at to explore the ideas that you have Suggesting. So we will definitely network with certain like-minded trainers out there. We're trying to do something similar to what we are planning. I think that would be a great idea because a lot of trainers it's you know I'm by.

Speaker 1: 26:22

I'm not biased, but I'm I'm ignorant to United States, and we haven't got into the UK yet. We haven't got into India or South America, central America, but I'm willing to bet, for the most part, most trainers are fairly frugal. They have all these great ideas and they want to change the world, but they're not putting skin in the game. And so when you do what other trainers are not doing and trainers don't go to high-end gyms, they go. They don't go to high-end restaurants. You got to surround yourself with the people who are action-based. And when you do it may be you look at those prices and you think, oh my god, it's so expensive, but to them it's pennies on the dollar. And so by seeing their Manu-rhythms, in the way that they think, and then you talk, it's not.

Speaker 1: 27:08

You're not going with your hand out saying gimme, gimme, gimme. You're having conversations with them. You're saying here's my strategy, here's my game plan. You know, in the next two or three years we're hoping that's gonna come to fruition. But then someone may say you know, that's actually a really good idea. You know why don't I come and do a little workout with you, see what it's like? And then next thing you know is that opportunity is gonna turn into you know some, some capital, and then you actually get to do it, and then that's the fun thing about that entrepreneurial spirit is that if you have the action, the ideas are just gonna support it, and so that's what people want. They love the ideas, but when you have the action now, you're Very, very highly sought after. So before we we call it a day and let you all get some sleep, what is? Do you have any questions for me? Before we call it a day?

Speaker 2: 27:58

Yeah, so when can we have the next podcast where we can ask technical questions?

Speaker 1: 28:03

I love that. So why don't you ask one of those technical questions right now?

Speaker 2: 28:08

So I was exploring, I was kind of studying through topics regarding muscle tone. So then I read about hypotonia, hypotonia, posture, how we maintain posture in our sleep and how our limbs lose tone when we sleep. We get some level of atonia when we are asleep and then we wake up and then we slowly get it back. So when we are training people in the morning batch, we feel that the members are slightly less. They're not able to perform the same way as the evening batch. So is this something to do with the muscle tone getting back to the person slowly after waking up?

Speaker 1: 28:52

That's a complex question and I love it Great way to conclude today. So when you say tonic, that's making reference to think of, like the light that I have behind me. The more light, the more tonic. The less light, the less tonic. And so when we wake up we're going to have hormonal differences which can have an impact on our nervous system. But typically we're getting out of a very parasympathetic state. We were sleeping, we were rejuvenating. It just really depends on the individuals. They say that the optimization for testosterone and like PR testing should be like midday, like between 12 and 3. But it doesn't mean that if you can't train that you should wait until 3 o'clock or 12 o'clock. It all depends on the individuals. That's a very technical question, but you have to look at the individuals and what they're coming in for, and so it could just be a more strategic warm up and getting them into the right mentality.

Speaker 1: 30:00

So the difference between being physiologically ready and psychologically ready, where they're ready but maybe they're not there because they're still a little tired and some caffeine can take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes to kick in, and so maybe just taking a look at that warm up to see where and how you can optimize it, put in some type of pap where it's post activation, potentially maybe get some jumps in there and other things that will help with that. Now I hate to cut it off, but today we have had to get on the podcast on a different line, so it's going to cut me off here in like 30 seconds. So I just wanted to say thank you all for showing up excited to get into India and help you. Two hunks, help a ton of people and, most importantly, what do we got to keep doing?

Speaker 3: 30:46

Keep showing up Love it guys.

Speaker 1: 30:49

Have a great rest of the day and we'll see you later.