0:00  
I was born into fitness, I think is the best way of putting that.

0:03  
For most people, fitness is one of the great dividers of our time. You either love it, or you hate it. Enter Nick Corneil, a lifelong fitness junkie and entrepreneur who really, really loves it. For Corneil, fitness is more than just a hobby or profession, it's a lifestyle. And it's been that way for as long as he can remember.

0:22  
My mom ran gyms my whole life growing up. So I was sort of like babysat on the side of aqua aerobics classes and, and just, it was something that was always a part of a part of my life a part of our lives. And obviously, that fitness and sports really closely correlated together to being active, being fit. And, you know, that was I played sports, my whole childhood growing up, which, you know, led to led to me playing some professional, professional football when University was done, and then settling into the fitness industry after that, as a trainer and gym manager ops manager eventually. So it's always been, I tell people, you know, I'm 35 and I've been in the fitness industry for 35 years.

1:01  
When you've been around any industry, as long as corneal has, you start to notice some problems. And he certainly did. These experiences made him realize that a change needed to be made.

1:10  
Well, I mean, I think the seeds of it, were watching, watching my mom work really long hours for really crappy pay in this industry was, I think the start of it, we need to something, something wrong with that. And then when as an athlete, I was a coach and athlete and had people overseas, like I said, but played in Switzerland. And so half the off season, I'd be half the year I've been Canada have the European Switzerland, and I coached teams across the ocean, and they to be an offsetting offseasons. And I'd be like mailing spreadsheets and stuff, so you saw the need for pretty quickly there. But then when I retired and settled in as a personal trainer, I first started working at Goodlife, and absolutely hated the business model. How it worked, how personal training work, how the actual helping people didn't really work. So that's what that's what the genesis of of trainer plus kind of came from my firsthand experience. Even running those gyms, I knew I was always going to do something in the tech space in a company like this. So it was really just a couple years of researching, okay, where where is why is fitness so broken? And where is that pain? And, you know, how is it, how's it fixed.

2:12  
After leaving good life, Corneil's passion for both fitness and tech soon led them to Ryerson's DMZ, sparking a partnership between the school and trainer plus last year, but I mean, I'm in the DMZ. And we were looking for partners of ours and had an introduction to the head of the head of the facilities here, the head of recreation.

2:30  
And I mean, he said he'd seen a number of technologies come through, but none that had sort of, they saw the direct value in right away, because I mean, their mandate at Ryerson is engagement of students. It's not it's not to make a million dollars, it's how can we help more students get more fit. And so our tool gave them a way of doing that without feeling like they had to pressure and squeeze a bunch of money or sell a bunch to, to to the students themselves. So it was a natural, a natural fit there. In terms of just proximity, and and and value alignment,

2:57  
What is that value you ask? Corneil says that the apps flexibility and accountability are some of its biggest draws.

3:04  
But we build as a fitness history and planning tool. So I mean, it captures all the relevant data from you know, your first consult or assessment that you put in there. And then it's really easy for trainers or for yourself to build and prescribe workout plans that you get on mobile, and then very easily track all those workout plans and get all that data all stored in one place. So basically, we close the feedback loop between the trainer and client around all that relevant information. So it's creating these new ways that seeing personal training being delivered and sold in that sense. What I would, what I would caution against is just thinking that you can do it on your own, you know. There's a million solutions out there, p90x bodybuilding.com, all that stuff. At the end of the day, everyone needs a plan that's customized to them. And usually people aren't intrinsically motivated. So you need some help from the outside to keep you accountable, keep you motivated to get into that to change that into a habit and change that into a lifestyle. So don't be shy to look for help. It's a very you know, there's also the whole you know, the ego thing especially of youth and thinking, you know, you can do anything on your own. But yeah, don't don't be shy to get help. And if not, I mean talk to us, we can also trainer plus help help connect you with with other trainers that are outside of that that realm as well.

4:15  
I try and go once a week. Margo Rubin is an RTA major at Ryerson. While she doesn't use trainer plus as of yet, she sometimes struggles with the same problems that it aims to help solve, time and motivation. I like I try and go more than once a week, but right now, it's just been really busy with midterms and things like that. I just recently moved downtown too, so I'm just it's been hard to fit into my schedule. For students like Ruben, Corneil says that there are many services that the Ryerson recreation department and trainer plus offer if you sign up to trainer plus yourself and build your own workout, you can book 30 minutes with one of the trainers for them to review and help you with your workout plan. So if you want to be on your own, that's great. If you want to get a full assessment and planning session from a trainer, you're first space is 30 bucks. I mean, it's a service that we like I have. I have this service on the side and we charge $150. for that service, Ryerson rec is charging $30 to help students get started.

5:11  
Evan McCabe, a personal trainer at the Mattamy Athletic Center for the past five years, knows the everyday struggles that students face in fitness. He says that the apps $30 plan has been one of the most positive aspects for Ryerson students.

5:23  
So what's really beneficial about that is like our cheapest trainer personal training package is about $330 where with a lot of students in debt, it's just they can't afford that. So trainer plus kind of offers this $30 option, the $60 option, this $120 option, so it's really beneficial for those that are on a very tight budget budget.

5:43  
Well, there you have it Ryerson students, you're not alone in your fitness struggle. If you're having trouble getting off that couch, or finding a productive steady break, maybe trainer plus is for you. After all, its founder really does love fitness and maybe you can learn to love it too.