KidSport event encourages gym rats to exercise their demons

It’s a bit of strength-and-conditioning schadenfreude for a good cause.

This Friday evening, Innovation Fitness clients will have a chance to “beat the crap” out of their trainers and, in the process, raise money to get kids into sports, explained Tri-Cities KidSport chair Chris Wilson.

The organization is hoping to raise $20,000 between the two Train the Trainer events set for Port Moody and Coquitlam. All that money goes to providing registration subsidies for families that are struggling financially, Wilson added.

Besides raising money, Wilson said he hopes the event helps spread the word about KidSport and ultimately results in more kids getting a chance to get on the pitch, the diamond, the court or the field.

“With the cost of living being just so crazy, there’s a lot of families out there that aren’t even considering putting their kids in sport. It’s just a real shame,” he said.

The event itself is generally a bit of a bonding exercise between client and trainer. Clients contribute money and in return they get a chance to order their trainers through a series of the most despised exercises.

“It’s all done in good fun, but often it’s a lot of hard work for the trainers,” Wilson said.

Mostly, the clients devise a routine that takes between 10 and 30 minutes. However, every once in a while those routines leave the bounds of fitness and approach the border of cruel and unusual.

Wilson recalled one night when a Coquitlam gym-goer made two trainers eat a vast quantity of roast beef before heading outside to pull a dump truck.

“That was probably the worst thing I’ve seen,” Wilson said with a chuckle.

In the three years prior to the pandemic, the event raised a total of $52,000, according to Wilson. It’s money that can really help a kid find out a bit about who they are and who they want to be.

An accomplished wrestler himself, Wilson credited his time in sport for helping him develop skills ranging from teamwork to time management.

“Not that sport is the most important thing in the word for anybody, but sport provides all kinds of life skills that people like myself use every day of my life,” he said. “We would love to support those families out there who aren’t even considering potentially putting their kids in sport.”

To learn more about the event, click here for Coquitlam and here for Port Moody.

To learn more about Tri-Cities KidSport, click here.