Anthony Robinson - Conversations with Artists

What is the art of what you do?

I help change people’s mentality.  When it comes to fitness the biggest thing that you have to change is your mentality. As a trainer I have to discover each person's ‘it factor.’  Anybody can come up with a program, put together some exercises and call themselves a trainer.  But I think it takes a special person to help change somebody's mentality.  That's the key to anything in life - a positive mental outlook - and by changing your mentality you can do anything you set out to do.   Once you begin the work and start seeing the results and achieving the goals you set for yourself, you’re going to want to keep working.  You can have all the goals in the world, but if your mindset is negative you're not going to accomplish anything.

How do you do that? 

In the first few sessions with someone I'm trying to discover their “why.”  What makes them come in, what it is they want to accomplish.  Once you find out their ‘why’ you discover who that person is and what really gets them going.   Everybody is different.  My reason for fitness is different than the next person’s, but one thing I’ve found that everyone has in common — we all want to look good.  At a certain point, you realize that being fit helps maintain your lifestyle, but beyond that, everybody wants to look good. Finding out what it is they want to look good for gives you a motivating key.  I might not find that right away  - it might take a few months to really get clear on what motivates someone.  Once I do, then the person really starts taking off.

What's your ‘why’ for wanting to help other people change their fitness level?

I feel as if it’s my calling — to help people.  For the longest time, I didn't know what my calling was.  I went to school and got a business degree - but that wasn't really helping people.  In life, I believe fitness is the only fair thing, and if I can help somebody with the only fair thing in life, I feel that I've done something.

What do you mean it's the only fair thing?

We know that the society we live in certainly isn’t fair.  But the work you put in at the gym and outside the gym - all of that is going to help you accomplish the goals you set.  You don't just become the best weight lifter from sitting around thinking about it.  You put the work in at the gym. You take care of your diet and your body starts to show the results.  I haven’t met a person yet who wanted to run a mile in under 12 minutes but didn't go jogging.  You put the work in and guaranteed you can accomplish that goal.  That's why I say it's the only fair thing; the work you put in equals the results you get out.  In other parts of life, you can work as hard as possible but you just might not get that one opportunity or that door to open. Fitness isn't like that.  

Describe how you feel you - when you see one of your clients transform.

A client that I helped the most, his name was Chris - I felt as if I were part of his transformation, and down the road, if he spoke of his transformation he was going to think of me.  It feels really good, maybe it’s selfish - but it feels good to know that I helped somebody accomplish their goal.  Knowing I helped someone feel better about themselves is really rewarding.

Maybe it's not really selfish - maybe it's the good feeling of giving.

People who are big-time givers, they're giving because they know someone needs help, and also because it feels good to give.  On a recent trip to the Dominican Republic - my buddies and I gave out shoes to people who didn’t have much.   They were grateful and the kids thought I was superman. That was a feeling that I liked, and that's what keeps me going.

Tell us more about what you did in the DR.

I took some sneakers and clothes down to the DR and gave them away on my vacation.  It was an amazing feeling having somebody look at you like you're something special.  I believe everybody wants to feel like a hero somewhere along the line.  That's the feeling I get as a trainer.  I feel like a little bit of a hero for a split second.  

What made you think of taking things to give away?

I always wanted to go to Africa to give.  You hear all the stories about how the kids don’t have enough to eat, and how many don’t have shoes.  I haven’t been to Africa yet, but knowing that I was going to the DR my friends and I figured we'd be able to find people in need.  People there don’t have as much as we do so it felt right to give what we could.

Talk to us about being a sneaker-head.  What's the deal?

Let’s take it back to the beginning.  My favorite basketball player of all time was Allen Iverson.  I got my first job was when I was 15 at Famous Footwear.   I got the job specifically because I wanted to save up the money to buy Iversons for basketball season.  I remember the store manager’s name was Jeannie.  I said ‘Jeannie, I need a job.  Do you hire anybody who's 15?’  She said ‘yes, the minimum age is 14.’    I actually hid the fact that I had a job from my parents because they wanted me to focus on school and sports and my grades, which was awesome, but I knew that heading into the 9th grade there were pressures to have fly gear.  I wanted Iversons to play ball in.   I was the first person on our JV team with a pair of Iversons, and once again, there was that hero feeling - everybody looked up to me like ‘wow, you got the new AIs!  Where did you get them?  Your parents got them for you?!’  For me what was important wasn't so much that I had new AIs, it was the fact I got them myself.

Did you hide them from your parents?  

They had already found out I had the job. Dad was mad at me.  Mom was proud that I took the initiative and got something that I wanted.  

You weren't sitting around asking them for stuff.

That's what she said.  She said ‘wow, you're going to wind up being a hard worker.’  I just wanted the sneakers and knew I had to work for something that I wanted.  

So fast forward and the sneaker habit took off.

Every pair of Iversons that came out, I had to get them.  Then I moved onto Jordans, then I actually took a couple of sneaker classes.

There are sneaker classes?

Even now I'm actually thinking about going to FIT.  They have a sneaker-head program.  

You’re interested in designing them?

I would love to do a FitnFly FItness X Nike Collab and come up with something for fitness and fashion.  That's my whole thing with fitness - being fit and fly.  So I'd like to do something for fitness yet look fly so that you can wear it out fashionably.  

So what is it that you do?

I like to keep it simple and say I'm a personal trainer.  My current title is ‘exercise specialist.’  But am I a specialist?  No.  I know a couple of exercises and how to help people get fit.  I like to think I'm special.  But I don't want to say I"m a specialist.  I like to help people.  I really feel that exercise should be fun.    Make something fun for anybody, they are going to want to do it.  Once you’ve done that, you’ve changed the mentality.    

What do you envision for your future?

My vision is to have a small, intimate studio.  I want to continue to work with people, I just would like to be doing it for myself.  Maybe it’s me and another trainer and two or three people at a time.  That would give people a comfort level yet there’d be camaraderie and a good feeling and I’d be able to help them accomplish their goals.

If you could go back and whisper something to 10-year-old Anthony - what would you tell him?

I’d tell him to stop worrying about making everybody else happy.  I was a kid who wanted to live up to the expectations that my dad had.  He wanted me to be something that he wanted to be.  I also tried to live up to the expectations of the church life I grew up in. So if I could tell 10-year-old me one thing, that's what I would say.  I feel like I would be so much further along in life if I told him that.  

Would he have listened?

Yes, because deep down inside I knew there was something else that I was looking for.  My parents were trying to breed me to be a doctor or a lawyer.  Church life was trying to breed me to be what they considered a god-fearing man.  When I was 11 I told my dad that I wanted to be a gym teacher when I grew up.  Why?  I loved gym, I loved being active,  I loved playing with my boys and I knew that's what I wanted to do.  I was so excited when I told my dad - but he looked at me and said: "no son of mine is going to ever be a gym teacher."  Actually, it’s not a bad profession - it’s lucrative and you're touching the lives of kids. Maybe I could have motivated somebody like myself.  When my dad said that to me I remember feeling crushed.  So I went to school for a business administration degree with a minor in marketing.  Knowing what I know now, I would've followed my dream of being a gym teacher.  I didn't know about personal training at that time.  

So I would've told myself, ‘do what makes you happy.’  I would've found a way to do it.  I was that kind of kid.

Are you doing that now?

I spent probably 23 years of my life living for someone else. Now, I’m not living my life for anybody else but me.

Anthony Robinson is a personal trainer currently working at the athletic club at Industry City, Brooklyn. Follow Anthony on Instagram at FitnFly Fitness