Gus Vaz Tostes is a face that’s known to many on the London fitness scene. With his iconic long hair & handlebar moustache combo, he’s an inimitable individual both on and off the gym floor. But who is the person behind the Hyrox microphone?

We’re about to find out.

Ahead of leading the MLA retreat in Crete this August, we spoke to Gus about what it means to be a Coach, how individuals should approach their training for the best results, and of course what he’s going to bring to this summer’s retreat.

What’s your story, Gus? How did your fitness journey begin?

It’s been one hell of a journey so far, that’s for sure! I was born and raised in Brazil, and was always into sports. I grew up playing football and played to a high level, but then made the decision to follow a football scholarship rather than trying to go down the professional footballer route. Through my football training I started to train in the gym, and very quickly I enjoyed being in the gym as much as I enjoyed being out on the field playing football.

I decided to stop playing football and instead study sports science, because I knew by then I wanted to work within the performance side of football and sports. I got my sports science degree and then came to London after I’d graduated - I only came to London to learn English so that I could do my masters in Physiology, as it was a prerequisite for the course!
Long story short, I started to work as a Personal Trainer but my visa expired after 18 months of working here so I had to go back to Brazil and work in the industry there.

How did you transition from Brazil to London and build your career here?

It was because of my love of CrossFit. I was so interested in CrossFit and functional-based training so I opened one of the first, and most well-known, CrossFit gyms in Brazil. I also started to compete in CrossFit around this time and did really well in both individual and team competitions, even qualifying for Regionals in 2016. But despite this I really wanted to follow the business side of things. Plus I wasn’t exactly young at this point, so knew it was best to focus my energy away from competing.

I did a Masters in Gym Management then returned to the UK with the intention of replicating what I’d done in Brazil with the CrossFit gym. But that’s when WIT entered my life and I was invited by them to run their gym. I took my own concept which was originally going to be called Downtown Fit, and turned it into WIT Training.

WIT went on to become a huge player not just on the CrossFit scene, but in the wellness industry overall. How did you achieve that, and what did you learn from it?

When we opened in January 2018, we started as we planned to go on. Every weekend we collaborated with top athletes and big brands from across the world to run huge launch events in the gym. It really put WIT on the map as a key player in both CrossFit and fitness as a lifestyle choice. We had such a great turnout at the events that it pushed us to do more and more and make them bigger and better each time.

In terms of learnings, through these collaborations I got to travel overseas to work with some of these athletes and brands, and through this I was really able to refine my coaching skills. Working with elite level athletes requires a different approach and mindset, and over time I got to work with some of these athletes in huge competition environments. But rather than wanting to continue coaching here, it’s where I realised how much I love and thrive off the big event and crowd environment.

Gus Vaz Tostes. Fitness Coach. — **Let’s talk all things coaching for a moment. When there’s a large group of people all with different abilities and confidence levels, how do you work with all of them at once?**

This is something I really developed while working in CrossFit, as the CrossFit methodology is ‘always programme for the best and adapt for the rest.’ Each session for me would start way before people arrived to class - I’d imagine all possible situations and levels for that day’s programming. I’d think about what injuries people might have and what movements I could give them to hit the same stimulus as the programming.
But what I came to realise was that people don’t actually come for a particular movement or the sweat. They come for the experience. I could identify quite quickly what people were there for - for some it was to train hard, some just wanted to have loads of fun while working out, and some really craved the community element to just hang out with people. So I would adapt for each and every person to give them the experience they as an individual were looking for.

What have you found to be your biggest hurdles in your career, and how did you overcome them?

When I started working with Fitt, it was the complete opposite to everything I had done before. I was so used to being in front of a class or a crowd, but with Fitt it was just me and the camera. I had no crowd to give me instant feedback so I had to learn to coach without seeing the audience and their reaction.

It was Joel Dommett (comedian and TV presenter) who told me that whenever he tells a joke, he imagines how people will react to it. So I started to think about things I’d said in classes for years before that, lines that I’d come to use over and over again because they’d had a good reaction. Over time I’d created lines that people associated with me, so I would intersperse my Fitt work with those plus others that I felt would have a good response. But more than anything, I was just 100% myself, because I figured I’d got to where I was already by doing exactly that. I also used traditional Brazilian humour which is typically making a double entendre out of everything - it always went down well in classes so I just carried on with it.

Since having more of a following and being involved with much larger brands, has it changed the way you approach fitness and your overall way of thinking? Does it bring more pressure or more motivation?

It hasn’t really changed how I approach work at all. Some people can get overwhelmed when dealing with high performance sports and high level brands, however I’ve always seen it as people just doing what they do, but doing it really really well. And some of those people just happen to get a following.

Regardless of who you’re working with, whether it’s clients on a gym floor or one of the biggest athletes in the world, you still have to show up and deliver, the same way everyone else does.

Yes there’s an extra element of pressure at times, but pressure is a privilege. If you’re in a position to be feeling that level of pressure, you’re doing something right. So I just continue to believe in what I do, be good at what I do, and always deliver.

What advice would you give to other Coaches?

Energy is everything. People sacrifice an hour of their day to be in your class or PT session, and if I was on the other side, paying money, sacrificing that hour of my day, I want to have a great time. It’s our obligation as Coaches - to give them what we would want ourselves. I always tell myself that it takes the same amount of energy to do something half arsed as it does to do it well. It doesn’t cost any more time or energy to be nice and show up 100%.

Additionally, in Brazil, we used to hire acting coaches to come to the gym to teach our staff how to get into the right character on the gym floor. Because you have to have your own character that shows up when you are working. As I just mentioned, people are coming to you for that one sacred hour of their day, so even if you’re tired, stressed or sad, you need to get into your character and deliver the best experience. Regardless of how I feel, Coach Gus always has the energy.

Ultimately, it’s a fun and active holiday, not an intense training camp where your schedule is regimented and you’re more exhausted when you leave than when you arrived. Sunshine, movement, nature and great people, I can’t wait.

A large number of the MLA community are balancing high-performance training with demanding full-time jobs. You seem to balance a lot of things - what advice do you have for people in a similar position?

I see this a lot, in that people are adding more and more stress into their lives with a demanding training schedule. There’s a big difference between performing at a high level that is optimal for you, and being an athlete. CrossFit calls everyone athletes, but the problem with this is that most people who are working full time, who have a partner and possibly a family, are sacrificing two hours of their day trying to be an athlete. 0.1% of people who exercise regularly are athletes and doing it as their job, the other 99.9% of the population need to fit it in around their lives. So it’s so important to find a training routine that works for you and allows you to be healthy and happy.

Your training should be enjoyable, and should be one of the best hours of your day. Life is stressful enough that your training programme should definitely not be causing you more stress. So if you feel like your training is too demanding, then it probably is.

Remember that our bodies are our biggest asset, we have them for the rest of our lives and we’re in charge of looking after them well. Make good decisions about what you eat and how you train so that they fit in with your life and don’t work against it.

Join Gus at our Crete retreat this August for 5 days of moving and connecting with some wonderful humans, and explore the magic that is Greece. All details here.

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