Some had to find their way to sport first, others lost sight of it later. I have always been there and stayed. I’ve been rowing since I was 12 years old. Competitive sport taught me to train really hard, to develop team spirit and to be absolutely focused. I’m a competitive type of person and I had moments there where I pushed myself beyond my limits. That liberated me – and I want to achieve the same with you.

Because at the same time that I developed my passion, my determination and my enthusiasm for the sport, I also started as a coach. I started teaching rowing to children when I was 14, and later I was an instructor in the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr). That’s when I quickly realised: Sports coaching is something very fulfilling. If you do it well, you can take people far and they give you a lot in return. You can shape people from the ground up with sport and the corresponding mindset and give them a sense of achievement that changes their whole life. That’s why I became a personal trainer.

It’s the successes of others that keep me going. The first key experience I had was with my brother. His rowing coach didn’t take good care of him, and I wondered why his technique was so bad. Then we trained together, and everything I said he was able to implement quickly. Within 30 minutes, he became much, much better. That was the first moment when I realised: I can really make a difference.

I train five to six times a week and try to embody what I teach my clients: good nutrition, focussed training, the right mindset. I have training plans for myself and train regularly with a trainer so that I don’t make any mistakes. But when I look around in the studio, only 12 to 15 percent of the people train correctly. The most common mistakes beginners make in sports are incorrect techniques, too much load too quickly and too little flexibility training. Too low an intensity, for example running for hours on the cross trainer, or ineffective exercises from magazines and the internet are also a problem. Influencers on Instagram, YouTube videos by barely trained trainers and fitness that is understood as a lifestyle or body cosmetics suggest that anyone can just start with heavy weights. This is not the case. According to the German Federal Statistical Office, 73 per cent of Germans have injured themselves doing sports. That’s a lot, isn’t it? That won’t happen to you with me.

Many licences, clients and personal trainer hours later, this is still what keeps me going: To set up a light in other people. One of my clients is 59 years old, had a torn cruciate ligament, a chronically painful shoulder, a fused spine and other minor problems. Before he came to me, he saw a physiotherapist for a long time, who initiated the first steps for his upcoming training. We carefully built up his training until it came to the following situation in training: On the leg press, I set him the task of moving the maximum possible weight and put on the full 210 kilos. Highly motivated, he began to push. Nothing moved. But he didn’t want to give up and kept pushing. Several seconds passed with maximum effort until he noticed that the weight could be moved minimally. He managed to manage the weight. I don’t know who was prouder.

So: light all the fires. With your personal training. There is no service where you get more per hour from a person who takes out stressors, who is a nutritionist, strength coach, mobility coach, counsellor, regenerator for you. You get 100 percent kindness, 100 percent energy and 100 percent focus from me every single day. I get the maximum out of myself every day – for you. Let’s step on the gas!