Joshua Avinash Singh of Fit-Rex: “I love to make fitness fun”

Joshua Avinash Singh, affectionately known as Rex or Mr Rex, understands the struggle it is for most of us to keep fit, and he is all about helping people become fit and motivating them to maintain that fitness.
The former School of the Nations student has personally experienced the pain of being overweight and the negative repercussions on health and esteem. As an obese child, life and school were quite uncomfortable for Singh, who was bullied, so one day he decided to do something about it: he started working out after school – dancing, weight training, cardio… “Every day, I would come home from school and I would work out.”
Over time, he invented his own workout programme and terminology, and the pounds melted off. He would eventually lose 125 pounds in one year. People noticed and started asking what he did to lose the weight, holding him as a role model. By the time he was in Third Form, Singh had progressed from providing weight loss tips to actually helping his classmates work out in the National Park – “fitness had taken over my world, I would ditch lessons to help people to train” – but he had no intentions of becoming a trainer, although others recognised his gift.
“’One guy I was helping said to me, ‘you know Joshua, you have a talent for this and you genuinely care about people and their fitness…’” I was like wow, that’s cool….,” the 23-year-old related; nonetheless, fitness training was not in his sights as a career.
As he was writing the Cambridge O Levels in Fifth Form – which necessitated a break from helping others exercise – he still did not know what he wanted to do until a teacher’s question to that effect crystallised the realisation that he wanted to be a gym trainer who would change people’s lives with a more effective and fun workout. He went home that day and told his dad; however, “not everyone was in agreement with my decision,” he reminisced. But Singh was determined to make his passion his job, so he went to “every gym in Guyana”, but his dream of being a trainer seemed destined to die a premature death – they all rejected him. “They told me I was not fit [enough] for the job; they told me only bodybuilders were trainers…that kind of wrecked me a little, but now I wanted to prove a point,” said the trainer, who is currently pursuing international certification to further develop his professional skills.

Joshua Avinash Singh and “Rexers” at his unique detox fitness event – commitment, self-discipline and good team members will take you far

Singh would go on to take a job as an airport clerk with an online company, while he plotted ways of making his dream a reality. It would be his sister who would point him to an alternative pathway of providing fitness training when one day she called him at work, frantic, asking that he come and train her right away. When he protested that he was at work, she said: “I will pay your taxi fare, I will pay you. Joshua, you have to come and train me now”, and that was that. He said he did personal training initially for a period of six months, as he wanted to prove to his family, it would work as a career. The January-born fitness maven, who says he is self-motivated, has now trained more than 1000 persons in the five years he has been active. “My way would actually motivate…” Like the tyrannosaurs (T-Rex) he named his Bel Air gym after, because they “symbolise power, determination, energy, drive, motivation”, the Joshua Avinash Singh method focuses on high energy and motivation to prevent boredom, lack of enthusiasm, and plateauing of results. With more than 75 incredible transformations to his name, including one client losing more than 128 pounds in approximately eight months and others raving about starting to see results in one week in a judgement-free space, Singh’s ever-changing, high-energy workout programme definitely packs a wallop.
“Fit-Rex is an unbelievable experience. Fit-Rex is not just about me. It’s about people connecting and motivating each other.”
The name Fit-Rex is significant for another reason. The ‘reptile-aholic’ further revealed that he was born on the day “Jurassic Park” was released in Guyana.
Singh, who will be running a 25-minute session to open the Cancer Institute of Guyana’s Breast Cancer Walk this Saturday, believes that perseverance is the most important quality entrepreneurs must possess and advised budding business people to start small.
“You have to keep getting back up [Don’t look at people. Don’t rush into things too fast] – think you can do it. Success is not easy. It’s a lot of late nights working, a lot of background work. You need to stay with your vision and trust and believe it.”
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