Shape up fatty!

>> Fear a great motivator says boot
camp-style fitness trainer

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: “Drill Sergeant” Brett Robin Antal

Age: 38

Occupation: Fitness trainer “specializing in boot camp”

Bio: This rough ’n’ ready St-Laurent He-man had done time with the Israeli Defense Forces and later as a career MP in the Canadian Armed Forces when he decided to forgo the military in favour of social work. But after scoring half a degree from McGill, Robin had a change of heart and decided to change academic disciplines and become the most hard-assed personal fitness trainer you never wanted to meet. “I won’t babysit anyone I train. I’m tough, I’m hard, I’m in their faces, and sometimes I yell. But I don’t care. They’re paying me for a service. And they keep coming back three times a week, so yeah, they like it. But my training isn’t for everyone.”

How he makes that determination: “I meet all my clients in advance to make sure I’m the right trainer for them and they’re the right client for me. I reject a lot of people. I can tell by the look in their eyes, if there’s a bit of terror or fear in them, that’s good. They need to be ready to be pushed to their limits because my training is unorthodox. I’ll get your heart going so it feels like it wants to jump out of your chest. You know, when I did boot camp, it was tough, really hard, but it was also fun, intense and very effective.”

The chances Robin will push you straight into a heart attack: Slim. “I always do physical evaluations first, to see how strong my clients are, what they can endure. It’s important because I push them to the point of exhaustion. Okay, nobody throws up or passes out like some people do in boot camp, but I push people to 110 per cent of their aerobic capacity. They curse me under their breath but I don’t mind, my response is, ‘Suck it up, you’re tougher than you think.’”

Something Robin is at a loss to explain: “Ninety percent of my clients smoke cigarettes.”

Might some of his clients be masochists getting off on all the sexy yelling hurled their way by the big strong military man? “Not like that, but I’ve come across people who get a rush when I’m, you know, right in their face, yelling in their ear. They get a little thrill.”

Do people ever decide after one session that there’s no way in hell they’re going back to see him again? “Absolutely.”

Does he call these quitters up in the middle of the night to give them hell for being lazy, good-for-nothing recruits not worthy for him to even shit upon, or something along those lines? “Well, keep in mind there’s got to be some degree of professionalism. But at the end of every session I do de-brief my clients and often have to tell them, ‘Hey, you’re weak. You’re weak and you’ve got to pick it up—and you’d better do it too. You’ve not achieved your capacity because you’ve failed mentally.’ Hey, boot camp isn’t cheap, and I want my clients to get their money’s worth. They make a commitment to me, and I make a commitment to them.”

Something he plans to do in the next couple of weeks: Re-enlist in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Literary preferences: Men’s Health.

Musical preferences: Jimmy Durante, Ray Charles.

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net