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SCMP Reporter

Hong Kong-based journalist Michael Taylor became increasingly disillusioned with the quality and cost of personal trainers in Hong Kong.

He made spectacular progress with his first trainer, losing 14kg and shaving 10 inches off his waist during the most difficult, but gratifying, three months of his life.

He then fell into a rut and his trainer lost interest, treating him as a 'mission accomplished'.

Mr Taylor also tired of the gym's relentless marketing schemes, which aimed to make him pre-pay increasingly large sums of money in advance. He decided to take his business elsewhere.

He joined another gym and hired a second trainer, but somehow he started gaining weight. He also found it almost impossible to reach the same level of commitment.

'It was time to start shopping around for yet a new gym and a new trainer,' he said.

'I joined the Leisure and Cultural Services Department's fitness scheme and started working out at government gyms closer to home. Because I live just one KCR stop from the border, I was spending more time in Shenzhen and making fewer trips into Hong Kong.'

Mr Taylor began noticing people handing out free passes to a 24-hour fitness club, so he decided to check the place out.

'The facilities were shabby compared with clubs in Hong Kong, and the equipment appeared to be second-hand at best. Half of the treadmills weren't working, some of the benches weren't very steady and the air-conditioning made hardly a dent in the brutal summer heat. But the staff were cheery and clearly relieved that I could speak Putonghua.'

Mr Taylor took a temporary membership and bought 10 sessions with a trainer - an additional two were thrown in free. The cost was 600 yuan for 20-day passes and 2,000 yuan for 12 lessons, less than half of what he paid in Hong Kong.

'My trainer was shy but very professional - he had graduated from a sports institute,' Mr Taylor said.

'What impressed me most was that he actually listened to me, and that is what set him apart from the trainers I'd had in Hong Kong. Not only did he give me advice, he also asked for my feedback. For the first time I felt as though I was working with my trainer towards a common goal.'

Mr Taylor took a one-year membership and now works out with his trainer one to three times a week, while continuing to use government gyms in Hong Kong. He feels he is benefiting from his frequent trips to Shenzhen in two important ways. He has been pushed out of his comfort zone physically - he is doing things he could never do on his own - and he has been pushed out of his comfort zone linguistically.

'I was already pretty fluent in Putonghua, but when my trainer asked me to reach both arms back so he could stretch them, I didn't understand,' he said.

Terms like 'cardiovascular' and 'warming up' have now been added to Mr Taylor's active Putonghua vocabulary, but he is still struggling with many phrases.

'You can spend decades learning a language, but the minute you find yourself in a new situation it's amazing how much you still don't know,' he said.

Working out in Shenzhen would not suit everyone. The gym's changing rooms are not clean, people spit in the ashtrays and the equipment often does not work properly. But despite this, it is friendlier than Hong Kong.

'As word gets around that I speak Putonghua, more people are striking up conversations,' he said. 'So working out in Shenzhen is not only helping me physically and linguistically, it is also enlarging my circle of friends.'



Lose weight and gain language skills by working out across the border