Meet Rei Toska

A while ago on this site I wrote a pretty scathing post about PTs – basically, I said most of them were a waste of money and too many of them were positively dangerous. But when you find a good one, they are worth their weight in gold – which is how they like to be paid. My fave PT is my friend Radi but since he became an osteopath he no longer works as a PT. So, what to do? I tried a few PTs since but for one reason or another, I didn’t stick with them.

Then yesterday morning at Highbury gym I had my first session with Rei Toska, a level 6 instructor, an Olympic athlete (he ran in the 2008 Olympic Games and is training like crazy for next year's games in Tokyo) and an inspiration even for someone like me who is sub basic when it comes to gym training. I tell you, it was a revelation!

I prefaced our workout by begging him to be gentle with me – I hadn’t slept well, I was in pain with a hip problem and I was feeling old… Please, show mercy!

I had such a great workout, nothing too much for me but yet hard enough to convince myself I was working out – I really felt those muscles burn. The revelation for me was how you can do a very effective workout using such low weights. It was all down to technique – and if you want to know more, or feel you now need to make real progress in your training, go see Rei (reitoska76@gmail.com 07502 155443). He’s amazing.

By the way, Rei and I exchanged and later the same day he came to me for a massage. It made me laugh that he prefaced the treatment with exactly the same plea as I had used – ‘I’ve just spent two and a half hours intense training on my legs – show mercy!’

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