Nati Avidan (30), a fitness trainer and owner of Nati Avidan Studio, succeeded in creating a community in the past decade. "Beyond professional training, there is a social experience. Everyone knows everyone, we're a family."
Behind the sports empire that today includes two branches and quite a few renowned trainees, such as Yogev Malka, Rotem Sela, Bar Sommer, Ziv Shilon and even former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, stands a guy who gets bored quickly and doesn't like to try too hard.
"A lazy person works best because he knows how to find the quick formula to achieve the goal," Avidan explains. "When I do something I love, I don't really make an effort."
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The ambitious young man who dreams of overseas developments has built a unique training method for those who get bored quickly. "We were taught, 'You have to suffer in order to succeed, you'll come to the institute to bust your ass and only then will you see results,' I agree with the first part, but you also have to have fun."
Someone who has never played sports, where do you start?
"I would recommend finding a place beyond its professionalism that will bring added value. Today you arrive at the studio and you expect to get the whole experience. They don't just come to play sports, they come to have fun, to make friends. It does not contradict that it is important to work with a qualified instructor who will build an appropriate program and the goal is to raise the trainees' self-confidence. Small successes spur perseverance."
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Alongside the social experience that Avidan boasts about, he does not forget to mention the importance of the professional aspect of the coaches. "A person who is in pain and exercises without guidance can experience injuries that will eventually lead to a shutdown of the body. I believe in giving the trainee confidence, explaining about each drill, how to do it correctly and what it works on."
At a time when the sensations are difficult and the body is heavy, how do you motivate it to play sports?
"Our body is like a machine, you have to maintain it, take care of it. It can be in training, food, stretching, and even on a daily basis when you pick something up off the floor. Sports are not something you have to convince someone to do, it's not a recommendation. I don't know why people are used to hearing that exercise is 'worthwhile'. In the end, everyone encounters it no matter what age, because sport is the cure for everything."
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What is your most effective motivation phrase?
"There are no magic solutions – you have to persevere and work hard. I try to make the trainee enjoy the journey, whether it's following, interest, or music. It's not for nothing that we invest in the whole envelope of this thing. I call it a 'training party' and there's nothing more motivating than that."
It's winter, it's cold, who wants to get out of bed, how do you get up and do it?
"I actually think that in the winter they shift more gears, I have more work to do. In winter we prepare for summer there is more free time. I highly recommend 'getting my foot used to it and then the habit gets me used to it'. Every day do physical exercise. Some say you need to rest so there's no problem with a lighter workout. Like people get up in the morning and brush their teeth. That should be our habit."
When will we start to feel the difference in the body? A month, two months? Or a year?
"You quickly start to feel the difference, in training or in your daily routine. I always tell my trainees, 'Remember where you were in the first training session because when you get to the 40th training session, you'll suddenly see that you're alive and you've made a change,' at that exact point he'll say to himself, 'How stupid I was that I didn't start earlier.'"
How did you experience October 7th, taking a break from sports?
"The period is not easy at all, when we avoid sports we plunge into pain and a period and if we do not continue to persevere it will be difficult to return to routine and it will not be easy to return the body there. On Black Saturday, the reality of all of us has changed, there are those in reserve duty or others who have had a disaster – we embrace everyone. At the end of the workout, he is a gift to body and soul."
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