Mr Motivator

Fitness professional Corey Oliver is a man on a mission to get Abu Dhabi moving and with this cause in mind, has set up fitness solutions firm The Original Fitness Co

Fitness fanatic Corey Oliver has set himself the task of getting Abu Dhabi fit and healthy. Having established Physical Advantage in Dubai three years ago and built a reputation as the boot camp guru, he has now turned his attention to the UAE capital where he believes there is a need for fitness solutions targeted at nearly every sector of the market, from kids to corporates. Leisure Manager trotted down to Abu Dhabi and put Oliver through the paces firing him some questions about his new venture, which he claims is a one-stop shop for the emirate’s fitness requirements.

LM: What’s the background to Physical Advantage and The Original Fitness Co?

When we set up Physical Advantage we wanted to get people out of the gyms, the air conditioning and out of the normal boring circuit classes and get them outdoors on the beaches, in the fresh air. We wanted to give them different and innovative ways of exercising that they hadn’t experienced before.

We created boot camp fitness — a mix between boot camp and a fitness training session. In Dubai we have military boot camps but because Abu Dhabi is a military city, we drop ped this and re-branded it.

LM: What do the sessions entail?

It’s basically fitness training on the beach. It’s a four-week course, three sessions per week and the first session of every course is a testing session — maximum sit ups, push-ups and squats in a minute and a maximum bridging (plank) timed test. We’ll do a timed one-mile run as well. It’s hard evidence so we can tell how they’ve improved during the one-month course. We gear our training to improvements in all those areas. We use weighted bars filled with sand for lunges, squats, sit ups, push ups, bicep curls etc and we might make them run holding them or with the bar above their head.

What other tailor-made programmes do you offer?

The boot camp is a unisex programme, but we also plan to launch a female-only programme called Wonder Woman Boot Camp Fitness. We are in talks with Abu Dhabi Helath and Fitness Club [regarding this programme] at the moment and hope to launch it to the public in September. The programme is similar to the unisex boot camp but designed to target female problem areas plus we only use female instructors.

LM: What about kids?

We have PhysEd Bootcamp Fitness for kids that runs twice weekly (afternoon sessions). They play games, sing songs, do relay races and they use the weighted bars, but with less sand than for the adults. We teach them discipline too and they get a lot out of it — it builds their confidence. We also educate the kids on what to eat, how to warm up and cool down and how much water they should drink when exercising.

LM: Why did you decide to set up a new venture when your Dubai business was going so well?

In Dubai I own half of Physical Advantage and that’s still going, but I’ve stepped away from that and done this on my own. I just have some different ideas, so this is an opportunity to do it Corey’s way.

LM: Why did you choose Abu Dhabi?

I have seen a niche in the market — we are the first fitness solutions company to establish ourselves in Abu Dhabi. At the moment there are only gyms — people see their trainer for an hour and that’s it, so we are providing people with focus and support for their health and fitness.

Our solutions include a nutritionist, body composition assessment testing, raw food supplements and we also have a GP here that we affiliate ourselves with, as well as a physiotherapist and chiropractor. We are a one-stop-shop for the consumer.

LM: What else can you offer the people of Abu Dhabi?

We have a mandate to get the people of Abu Dhabi moving and that includes the Emirati population. I really believe in introducing them to the fitness ideas that we in the Western World take for granted. We are looking at rolling out a government [fitness/wellness] strategy that will involve developing programmes for Emiratis who are obese or have metabolic syndrome or diabetes.

We also offer personal fitness training and are affiliated to hotels such as Al Raha Beach Hotel and Sheraton Hotel on the Corniche. We train the members of their gyms or their hotel guests. In addition, we offer VIP personal fitness training and nutritional advice where we are on call 24 hours a day and train them at a venue of their choice —– it could be their home, their office, the gym or outdoors somewhere. This is really targeted at busy managing director or CEO types.

LM: Is there much demand for corporate training programmes?

Yes, we have corporate fitness programmes involving team-building events and boot camp sessions to get people interacting. Sometimes we play games you used to play at school — the egg and spoon race, pin the tail on the donkey and hide and seek etc.

We can also offer companies a programme of services for their employees to include team-building exercises, personal training, medical and fitness testing and nutritional seminars.

In fact, we are in talks with ADNOC in regards to doing a one-year wellness programme for 3000 employees at its oil refining company.

LM: What are your future plans?

We will soon roll out our group fitness product — a skipping, yoga, kettle bell and boxercise classes — and then we have our gym management and gym design division.

If someone has a gym they want us to manage, we put a manager in there to do bookings, sign ups, opening and closing the facility and arranging cleaners etc.

In addition, if developers come to us who want to install a gym somewhere, we’ll advise them on how to do it.

We will align ourselves with an equipment provider and tell the developer or owner what equipment they need to suit their workforce. We’ll design the gym, set it up for them, put membership systems in place and hire trainers for them.

LM: Where do you source your instructors from?

Abu Dhabi is short on instructors so at the moment I am also recruiting from Dubai.

Emirati women can only be trained by women and so there is a huge demand for female trainers, but they are scarce. In the future we will be running courses for people to get certified as personal trainers.

ABOUT ORIGINAL FITNESS CO.

The Original Fitness Co. is a total fitness solutions firm based in Abu Dhabi offering the following services:
• Boot camp fitness: unisex, women-only, kids and corporate.
• Personal fitness training: one-to-one, group and VIP training.
• Corporate fitness: team building, events, executive wellness programmes.
• Group fitness: coming soon and will include skipping, yoga, kettle bell and boxercise classes.
• Gym management
• Gym design
• Courses for instructors

The Original Fitness Co. is recruiting now and requires qualified female instructors in particular.
For more information visit www.originalfitnessco.com