Taking a leap of faith and hiring a personal trainer is a significant step in anyone’s life, but if you think an hour of sweat three times a week is the answer to all your prayers for health and fitness, then maybe it should take a little time. advice from Chiheb Soumer, a former martial artist who is correcting many of the wellness industry mistakes.
This martial artist developed the Fairfax Training Club in Los Angeles as an antidote to the humble gym after realizing that many establishments, personal trainers and their clients are making mistakes that threaten to undermine their potential. M&F spoke with the wrestler-turned-fitness guru to find out more.
Having been a Judo student since the age of 5, Chiheb Soumer He has been physically active for as long as he can remember. By the time he turned 8, the young upstart was racing all over his native Germany. At the age of 12, he joined the German judo team. It was during this time that a love of fitness magazines sparked Soumer’s interest in physical improvement.
“Growing up in the ’90s and 2000s, I was surrounded by fad diets and crazy exercise trends,” he recalls. “It was much more difficult back then to remove nonsense without having the Internet. Through resources like Muscle & Fitness and others, I began to educate myself and discovered the importance of nutrition and a good strength routine.”
When the promising judo star began to see great results from fitness routines What followed, the martial artist realized that he could also train others to make positive changes. So, he began to pursue a career as a personal trainer at the age of 17. “There are a lot of mistakes PTs can make, and they usually start with etiquette, pricing, program structure, and lack of education,” says Soumer.
While developing as an accomplished personal trainer, Chiheb Soumer continued to further his martial arts career as a professional Muay Thai fighter. He amassed an impressive 12-1-1 record before moving to the US At age 25, he found a place at Alliance MMA based in Chula Vista, San Diego. “Alliance had some of the biggest names in the industry, like former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, and I looked up to all of them,” says Soumer. “They welcomed me to the team and I started training there constantly.”
While a catalog of lingering injuries would eventually force Chiheb Soumer to make the difficult decision to retire, he understood that he could apply some of the lessons he had learned from those MMA legends to enhance his offering as a personal trainer.
