March 20, 2017

Meet Eduardo Dias of Show Me The Fitness in Studio City

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eduardo Dias.

Eduardo, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I unfortunately don’t have a cool story of having lost 100 lbs. or anything like that. I have always been into fitness. I had been an active little boy but was always very skinny.

When I was around 11 I started working out. I put my first routine together by performing a movement and touching my muscles to see which one I was contracting. I would work out every day before taking a shower. When I started to see my little muscles starting to grow, I got really excited and never stopped doing some kind of workout routine ever since.

When I was going to college, going to a gym became very hard. So I put together a routine using only body-weight exercises. The routine took 20 minutes and I worked out 2x a week.

When I finished college, I decided to put the routine I had been using for years in a book, and started writing a book called The Twenty Minute Bodyweight Workout. Since I was just a regular guy with no training in kinesiology and no credentials whatsoever, I decided to get a personal training certification, so at least I had some kind of clout. I got my certification and went on to look for a job as a trainer. I was lucky to land a spot at a membership gym that still allowed independent trainers (basically all membership gyms nowadays hire trainers at minimum wage and pay them a little more when they train clients, which is not very much).

I was lucky enough to stay busy and was able to survive when the recession hit at around 2006. Most trainers at my gym were actually leaving fitness and getting 9-to-5 jobs (when things start getting tough, the trainer is one of the first thing people will cut out).

But then the membership gym I was training at closed down and that was a big hit on me. Membership gyms are great because you always have new members joining in, and many are at least open to the idea of hiring a trainer. When the gym closed I had to rely only on referrals as a way to get new clients. That was enough for a while, but finally in 2010 I had to take on of those minimum wage jobs at a gym. Things were not good and I was actually ready to start looking for a 9-to-5 job.

As corny as it may be, the idea of starting a boot camp came to me in a dream. Right in the middle of that crisis, when I was ready to look for a 9-to-5 job, I had a dream that I was doing a boot camp. I had thought about doing a boot camp years before, but didn’t think it was for me. I was more of a one-on-one person and liked the special attention I could give to my clients that way. But I was desperate, so I said “let’s do it”. I put a few routines together, and emailed everyone I knew, including–and especially– former clients and told them that I was starting a boot camp. The rest is history. I learned that I also had a talent for putting boot camp routines together, and almost everyone who came to try out our boot camp ended up joining. I came up with a system in which we focused on strength and body sculpting on Mondays, cardio on Wednesdays, and a very functional routine on Fridays. The boot camp took off, we had great reviews online, and the reputation I gained from the boot camp brought me new clients and kept me busy ever since.

In addition to that, I also started another company called Adventure-us. My other passion is the outdoors and I love adventures. The boot camp made me realize that I have a talent to leading groups as well, so I started taking groups on hikes, backpacking and camping trips and other adventures. Today Adventure-us does everything from skydiving outings (I’m an experienced skydiver who started when we did my first skydiving outing), scuba diving trips (I’m a master scuba diver who started when we did our first scuba diving outing), to international trips (we climbed Mt. Kilimajaro with a 100% success rate last year and we’re planning to climb the 7 Summits). If you would like we can talk about this other company as well.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The biggest obstacle was the recession. Like I said, when things get tough, the trainer is one of the first things to go.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Show Me The Fitness story. Tell us more about the business.
What sets our boot camp apart is how we were broke things down into strength, cardio and functional training. People love that we do one day that focuses solely on strength and body sculpting, another that we focus just on cardio, and a third day that is more like a CrossFit day. Those are very distinct workouts and people love it.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’m not sure. I was definitely lucky to have landed a spot at a membership gym as an independent trainer. Without it, my beginning would have been very hard. I know many trainers that started ass gym employees and built their clientele that way, though.

I guess the gym closing was bad luck, but then again, things do come to an end. I was finally able to find a solution that makes me independent of gyms altogether, so one could say it was a blessing in disguise…

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