Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Outrivals started when we used to do outside classes back in 2015. We came up with a movement called Pay What You Want; people just came and paid whatever they could and it was a great way to get people fit and give them access to fitness no matter what their financial background was. Over the next three or four months, we realised that our training was good, but what was really special was that we’d built a really cool community and that they really connected with the way that we treated them, calling people by their names, making sure that we built a really cool rapport with them, and we wanted to bring that ethos indoors so that people felt like they had a second home for a gym. We built our first home in 2016 in Old Street and, ever since then, we’ve been working on the culture and the vibe of what happens when you come to work out with us. We’re connected to the local community, too. We always want to give back to every area that we open up in, so in Greenwich we’ve been doing free school meals for local families, and from our Old Street gym we volunteer regularly at the Shoreditch Adventure Playground.

At the gym, we focus on small group classes with a maximum of eight to ten people, doing strength and conditioning-based fitness with an element of CrossFit, too. We wanted to bring the best of personal training and big group fitness classes and mash it all together, to make sure that the trainers can give time to people and help improve their form and technique, as well as build a rapport. I want to foster a sense of belonging – that feeling of walking into a place where everybody knows your name is so nice. Our mantra is Be Your Own Hero and that’s something that’s very personal to me. Growing up, I was always focused and I’m a very goal-driven person. It’s painful when I meet people or friends who get side-tracked because they care too much about what others think, and they stop focusing on themselves and their own goals because of what people are saying. You have to learn to shut out the rest of the world for a bit and just focus on yourself.

If you’re starting to work out for the first time, make sure you get into a routine that fits around your lifestyle: don’t go five times in the first week if you don’t think you’re going to be able to maintain it. It’s better to start at twice a week and be consistent. Having a non-negotiable schedule that you stick to will help, too. And take your time; see it as a progression, as a six-month or year-long thing rather than a six-week thing. Think hard about why you’re doing it, too. Social media has been great for promoting the fitness industry and getting more people into exercise, but there’s a negative impact to comparing yourself to the person on your screen. You have to drown out the crowd, drown out the people around you and ask yourself, why are you getting fit? If it’s for you and if it’s really helping you, great. But don’t do if it’s because you’re judging yourself against what you’re seeing on Instagram.

The past year has been such a testing time for a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs but I’ll be honest, I’ve loved it. Seeing how we can get creative, what angles we can get into or how we can diversify; running a business is never easy but you have to ask yourself what you can do to challenge the moment and challenge the situation that you’ve been given. We’ve pivoted into selling gym equipment, we created Choy House, and we were faced with so many challenges – but it’s kept me on my toes.

At Choy House, I wanted to promote Chinese culture and make incredibly messy, really, really tasty street food along with smoothies and juices. There’s a programme about Chinese food on Netflix with David Chang called Ugly Delicious and, to be honest, that’s exactly what it is. It’s not necessarily the healthiest food but we make everything fresh from quality ingredients. Having a roast duck banh mi after going to the gym is really weird for some people, but it makes sense to me to follow a good workout with great food. Everything comes down to balance – that’s how I live my life.