If you mention Pilates in Williams Lake, you may just get the question: "Do you go to Brent?"
Brent Friesen is pretty much a fitness brand in himself in the lakecity, with his small-size fitness classes so popular there are waitlists to get a coveted spot. So what is it about Friesen which has people lining up to have him tighten up their core or tone their tushes?
For years, when people raved about Friesen's fitness classes, I remember thinking all of these people sound like they have a crush on their instructor, they were always so enthusiastic.
Now I get up extra early on Monday mornings to attend Friesen's Pilates before work and not only do I love it, but I recently heard myself telling someone how great his class was and immediately thought how now I am one of those people I always wondered about.
While it did take me a couple of weeks to interpret "Brent speak" – the special language Friesen uses to cue his students, using phrases like "rotate-in-ator"– the classes do always seem to leave his students smiling. While some of this may be due to the positive feelings of exercise-related endorphins, I would argue it has much more to do with his self-deprecating humour and relentless charm.
He has regular jokes, like when he introduces students to the latest local art on display and tries to pass it off as his own, or when he teases his students about partying, always bringing up his own preference for early nights. Friesen isn't working on material for standup gigs, but he does have something special, he's genuine and he genuinely likes his clients.
Friesen, however, credits something else entirely for the incredible popularity of his classes: gossip. He jokes it is just the inside information which has people eager to find a spot in his classes.
"Some might be a little embellished but in general, it's pretty accurate," he says of the stories he shares with his students, always told with a bit of flair.
Friesen also knows how connected the community is, he was born and raised in Williams Lake. At 54 years old, his Essence Pilates Fitness Studio has now been in the community for 19 years and he has been teaching Pilates for over 25 years.
The fitness studio offers indoor cycling, TRX, yoga and more alongside his staple reformer Pilates, which for those who don't know is a combination of low impact or no-impact stretching and strength exercises focusing on the body's core.
He says the business has been built on word-of-mouth, and it wouldn't have been possible to do the range of work he does in Vancouver, where he took his training and began teaching Pilates.
"I never thought it would fly in Williams Lake," he says of his initial doubts of starting up his business.
But he credits his wife Reneé with being right when she told him he would be able to teach fitness and Pilates full time when they returned to their hometown.
Reneé and Friesen met in a fitness class at Sam Ketcham Memorial Pool (now the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex), where Friesen began doing fitness instruction.
"You name it, I did it, fitness-wise," he says of his time working at the pool. But he didn't chart a straight course to running his own business and opening a fitness studio as his primary vocation, though he had been interested in fitness his entire life and even competed in bodybuilding briefly. He said his interest in fitness began thanks to his healthy fear of dying and figuring he needed to try and stay healthy.
First he went in to study recreation management at what is now Thompson Rivers University, but he determined it wasn't for him.
Friesen upgraded his sciences and then tried nursing school, which he says he lasted a year, but left when it got a bit too personal.
"When it got to catheters I was too shy," he jokes, of his decision to leave nursing after finding it was the "wrong end of healthcare" for him.
When he and Reneé got married, they moved to Vancouver around 1995. Reneé was attending cooking school, and he decided to take cooking training as well.
But after finishing training, Friesen says he was working in kitchens for minimum wage and realized it also wasn't for him.
"I didn't make it to Food TV so I went back into fitness," laughs Friesen, in a self-deprecating joke about his departure from the industry after working in some fancy restaurants.
"I respect anyone that works in the food industry," he says, acknowledging the tough grind the industry can be, especially given the challenging hours for someone who likes to be in bed early.
So he took the training for Pilates, and became one of the few male instructors in a female-dominated industry.
When the couple moved back to Williams Lake, he opened his studio and the rest is history. He and Reneé have a son, Tristan, now 20, who works for BC Wildfire Service.
In his free time, Friesen is an avid mountain biker, a downhill skier and a cross-country skier and introvert who enjoys good coffee and quality donuts.
