Most trainers don’t wear costumes and eat pizza while in the gym, but on Nov. 23, at Innovative Fitness Victoria, the usual rules were set aside for the second annual Train the Trainer. This unique fundraising event is a chance for Innovative’s members to put their personal trainers through the paces while raising funds for charity. Spear-headed by Innovative Fitness Victoria gym manager Ryley Carter, the event raised $10,600 for Power To Be programs.

“The trainers are really good sports,” says Jodi Gaiser, Power To Be Advancement Coordinator. “They get put through the wringer but you don’t ever see them without a smile on their faces.”

Funds are raised through selling blocks of time during which a trainer has to follow the purchaser’s instructions. Some of the challenges included building pyramids while planking, eating pizza and riding exercise bikes, and doing aerobics in costumes and wigs. The 10 Innovative Fitness trainers showed a lot of heart and emcee Natasha Jackson, Power To Be People and Operations Leader, joined in the fun wearing her very best gym attire that included tube socks and a headband.

MD Esthetics and another individual donor generously purchased a 10-minute block of time that allowed Power To Be to issue a challenge for the trainers to transport Innovative Fitness Victoria owner Jeff Dallin around the block in a TrailRider. After buckling him in to the TrailRider, a piece of adaptive equipment used on Power To Be programs, the team of trainers lifted him off the floor and headed for the door. Almost immediately, someone pointed out that the TrailRider has a wheel and the group worked together to manoeuvre Jeff around the block quickly and safely.

“The Power To Be challenge created a specific opportunity for some of the trainers to really connect with our mission and to see first-hand what it takes to operate some of this equipment,” Jodi says.

Once the pizza was eaten, the costumes all sweaty, the money counted and the challenges completed, trainers and attendees voted for the hardest challenge and the most fun challenge and the members who invented them won prizes donated by local partners. Power To Be, though was the big winner of the night.

Thank you to Innovative Fitness, Driftwood Brewery, MD Esthetics and Fjälräven for supporting of Power To Be through Train the Trainer.