So I’m pretty proud of what I do for a living. I’m a gay personal trainer and strength coach in Toronto and I like training queer folk in my little gym. I end up talking about what I do quite often because it’s part of the job and I think it’s really interesting. Most of the responses are pretty great, but I often asked a type of question (usually with good intentions) in some form by both straight folk and gay men.

Why does it need to be Queer only?

Digging a bit deeper, they may be actually asking something a bit more specific. Something like…

“Will you train a straight guy like me?”

“I’m gay and I feel fine in gyms so this seems unneccessary”

“My gym is full of gay guys so I don’t get it”

“Shouldn’t we strive to be more inclusive, and less exclusive?”

So I wanted to talk about what I do, why I think we need it and how everyone can feel good about it (even if it isn’t for them).

So much of my work with new trainees is giving them the space and encouragement to feel comfortable in the gym/studio space. It’s just a fact that some of us queer folk (and a good percentage of our hetero cousins) have never felt a sense of connection in a gym environment that may have made is feel a spectrum of feels, from unfamiliar to uncomfortable, to downright hostile and dangerous.

So when someone asks me how to start feeling that elusive feeling of “belonging” in a gym …. I just say…

“Wear Cute SOCKS”

And then they give me this weird stare like I’M the one that’s crazy.

And then I stare them right back in the eye and I say:

S is for Self

O is for Open

C is for Consistent

K is for Kind

S is for Slay

And they’re like…”why are you staring at me like that?”

And I’m like…”oh sorry, bad habit”

And then I share the following advice: