3 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Me

I am celebrating the Chinese New Year with a break from Track, Coaching, Fitness and Health.

I see a lot of bloggers do this type of post, so I thought to give it a shot. This is more entertaining, but they are true stories. In this series, I’ll focus on non Track events in my life.

1) I was Rick Astley’s Personal Trainer

But only for a day.

Yes, the same Rick that sings “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Together Forever”.

I was an Exercise Physiologist at an exclusive Montreal Hotel, Gym and Spa and one of their hotel customers wanted a Personal Trainer to go through a full upper and lower body weight workout with a mixture of free weights and machines.

The funny part was his good looking fit blond girlfriend was also working out in the same room, but she was familiar with her routine and did her own thing without any assistance.

I lost count of the number of guys trying to pick her up. And the whole time, Rick and I did our routine and he never flinched or showed any signs of jealousy. This guy had class, and he has a pretty darn good voice, too.

No, I didn’t get free tickets to his show, and I didn’t ask. It was against Hotel policy.

I hope he wasn’t too sore the next day.

2) I was Anita Baker’s Body Guard.

But only for 15 minutes.

This classy lady of soul and Jazz is most famous for her album Rapture (yes, they were called albums back then. The CD industry killed the Vinyl industry overnight)

I was working late at the Hotel, and a fight had broken out in one of the banquet halls of the hotel. All the security staff were summoned to a code 10-99.

Meanwhile, I get a call from the front desk. Since I was the biggest Trainer on staff (I was bench pressing 305 lbs back then with a 30 inch vertical jump) they needed me to escort Ms. Baker from her limo from the back service entrance to her penthouse hotel suite.

So I went down to the limo, and escorted her to her room. We chatted about Montreal, and how nice and friendly the city was. I told her that the speed limits posted on the highway were just wild estimates. I mean, really, who drives 100km/hr on the freeway? This is Montreal, city of tailgater’s and home of the best bagels and smoked meat in the world.

If you look at her album cover, you’d think she was a tall 5′ 10″ lady. But in reality, she was barely 5′ tall.

No, I didn’t get free tickets to her show or get asked into her room, in case you were curious. Anita is one classy lady. Always have and always will be. I love her music, even today.

3) I was the Scorpion’s Bass player Francis Buchholz Sports Physiologist

Again, just for the day. They were in town touring their album “Wind of Change”.

A hotel client made a 9:00 am appointment on a weekend for a full body fat test, VO2 max test, nutritional analysis and a complete workout program.

When I give a program, I ask the 3 big questions:

1. What are your goals?
2. How many days a week can you work out?
3. How long can you work out for?

Based on those 3 answers, I can give a realistic expectation on how long it will take you to reach your goal.

Anyways, this chap comes in; a tall frail looking German with long hair. His English was exceptionally good.

He says, “Mr. Lee, you know, I need to start taking better care of myself. My job takes me on the road a lot, I work late nights, and after work I have a couple of drinks with my buddies to unwind”.

“I’d like a workout program, and some tips on eating better, especially on the road”

He never mentions once he is a rock star. He was so humble about his fame and I presume his fortune.

I can’t give details on my answers (part of the client privacy disclosure) but I can say he had a very good VO2 max based on a treadmill stress test. Either he is fit from performing on stage, or VO2 max is genetic. Let’s argue those points at a later article.

Like the above 2 times, I didn’t get free tickets to his show,

In all 3 examples, I never saw the client again. I am sure they all went on to bigger and better things (and so did I), and I really hope I made an impact to their day to day lives.