Get fit for free in Dubai: Meet the Portuguese expat behind the fitness sessions

Gulf News

How to stay healthy? Join free fitness classes.  That’s exactly what Portuguese expat Freddy Martins set out to do when he moved to Dubai. To make it easy for UAE residents to take the healthier route, he thought, why not provide free fitness classes?  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/uae/free-fitness-training-sessions-in-the-uae-meet-portuguese-couple-who-started-growing-community-1.96214132  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #Dubai #fitness

Transcript

00:00Hello everyone, this is Anjana Kumar from Gulf News and with me is Freddy, who is Freddy,

00:14Freddy is the founder of At The Park, At The Park is a free fitness community for UAE residents

00:21to come and do fitness, as we said, for free, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

00:29Freddy, welcome to Gulf News. Hi Anjana. Amazing concept, we don't hear of free fitness, I mean a

00:35lot of people pay money at gyms and clubs, but here you are offering like free fitness, so where

00:42did that come from? Well, so At The Park has now eight years in UAE, me and my wife Tatiana,

00:51we came from London and basically when we started working in the region, we observed

00:59that a lot of people working with us did not have the access to go to the gym or even the knowledge

01:06about fitness, about sports. Me and her, we decided to literally take people with us because we used

01:14to train almost every day and take them with us to the park and do some workouts and teach

01:20them about simple movements. I was doing a lot of CrossFit back then, it started like this, very

01:28informal, just with a group of friends, the friends start inviting more friends, family

01:36and the community starts growing naturally. How big is the community today? So we have, right now we

01:43have 17 coaches working with us, sharing the same mindset, providing free classes every single day

01:52of the week, we have sessions every day of the week and in some days we have multiple sessions

01:59in different locations, which is amazing and all the sessions are for free. When we look at

02:06the number of attendees on a week, we touch the lives of around 350-400 people a week.

02:15What are the fitness sessions that we have? We have multiple activities, we have cross training,

02:20we have running, we have yoga, sound healing, we started very recently meditation, so yes, we have

02:32different sessions that people can attend with different kind of levels,

02:37fitness levels. Basically what we are looking for is to eliminate all kind of excuse that you

02:45might have because some people they don't like to run, okay fine, come to a yoga session, you don't

02:51like yoga, come to a cross training session. We have different alternatives, Zumba, we have different

02:58things that people can just come and try for themselves, see what suits better for them,

03:04for their fitness levels and for their goals and we are here to help people to kind of

03:09have a more healthy and better life.

03:19How Atapark has changed your life? So I've been with Atapark for the last three years

03:26and I've done some really amazing stuff with them like triathlons, marathons, even spartan races.

03:34The biggest takeaway would be doing the things which I never imagined that I could do like a

03:40full marathon or even like triathlons. There are a lot of major disciplines and I hope to

03:46someday represent Atapark in an Ironman as well if possible. You're a regular with Atapark,

03:52what brings you here every time? First of all when I found out that this sport community provides

04:00such a wide range of exercises, I was like oh I have to try it. So when I came here I realized that

04:09they are not only here, there are not only people of a very very high level of

04:18exercises. The beginners are here, intermediate, very professional ones too. So I said okay I can

04:24find myself here comfortably. You can choose anything if you are not ready for the hardcore

04:29like calisthenics or crossfit. You can go for yoga, you can go for Zumba, this is very nice and the

04:35best thing here is the atmosphere and the good vibes of the team because when you come here

04:43it's not only just to exercise, it's also your mental health with yoga as I said and the positive

04:47mood. This is the best thing I like about this place. You're coming from Ajman to Atapark. Yes.

04:54You don't miss workouts. So tell us what brings you here? I feel Atapark is the inspiration for

04:59every member that are coming here. It doesn't matter from which place I'm coming but this

05:03gives me the the society, gives me the motivation to come and to be addicted on the sport. I get to

05:09know a lot of friends, I get to get other people, other sessions. We play different types of

05:15exercise that gives me like lifestyle. So all the time I like to come and play something different

05:23I never did before and keep the motivation for other people that's young people to join us and

05:31even spread videos with them and show all the time. I'm all the time talking about the society and

05:36other places. Alhamdulillah this is since three years or four years I'm with them. Every time

05:42coming here it's something different. Experience is amazing. New friends, new exercise, challenging

05:51ourselves, challenge other people. We get to know a lot kind of sport. We participate in different

05:58occasions, events. I regularly go to the gym but I used to go three times a week

06:05only. That was before joining at the park. After joining at the park

06:11I work out six times a week. The community is really amazing. You get to be surrounded

06:20by like-minded people who share the same passion basically and we're all crazy

06:28about sports here. Most important thing is that I have achieved things I never would have

06:35thought I'd achieve. One of them like running a race of 10 kilometers. I did it three times.

06:42I motivate myself to come here when I heard it about this community from a friend that there

06:47is a free sessions. So I found out I joined first yoga and then from that session

06:56I found out there's a lot more sessions that they're coming on this group. I did spartan race

07:05for super. So I was with the at the park community and it was very amazing spartan race that I've

07:15ever had in my life because the support of the ATP family is there. They're always there and

07:21they never let you left you behind alone. So they're always there. Even I got injured that

07:27time but I keep they keep wishing me to finish until the end. We have a fantastic support from

07:32Science Park, from Dubai Internet City. We are also expanding to Palm Jumeirah. There are several

07:43places that we are able to to do exercise but also we have to get some extra support and the

07:49IC for example it's a very very good support for us to to succeed with these fantastic sessions.

07:56Running session starts in Townsend this year actually and have been fantastic. We are reaching

08:03out to communities and also it's not just about the running self. We are start coming together

08:10understanding who lives there and it's fantastic. It's really good to know the other side of the

08:18people not just work-wise but how people want to to showcase on themselves. So going forward

08:26Freddie do you have are you working on special events or is it just the classes that that you

08:32have? Yes so last year we start organizing big events. Last year the International Day of Yoga was

08:41a success event and we're going to do it again this year on the 24th of June.

08:49So I want to invite everyone to come and join us. We have already almost 400 people

08:54already pre-registered. It's going to be on Dubai Officers Club Stadium and if people want

09:03to know more about just go to the official website www.idydubai.com and register pre-register

09:13and join us on this amazing event. Amazing. Thank you so much Freddie. What an amazing story.

09:19So there is no excuse anymore to get fit. This is Anjana Kumar for Gulf News.

09:33you

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