Born and raised in Muscat, Saif Al Rawahi, founder of Smart Approach Fitness participated in every sporting tournament in school, and like most Omani kids, played football in the evenings. He graduated unsure of what to do next; he wasn’t active anymore, and his love for music grew as he started writing songs and composing tunes. But he knew that he would not get much support for choosing to study music, so he opted for something different – the Health Safety and Environmental Management (HSE) field.
He studied HSE for three years in Oman during which he was awarded a full scholarship to study Environmental Management and Protection in California. Following this, he studied HSE again for a year in Preston, UK, and graduated with honours.
Today, Saif Al Rawahi helms Smart Approach Fitness, Oman’s first online personal training and fitness brand! Read on to know more about his journey and his passion for fitness…
What inspired you to get into fitness?
While at Humboldt State University, California, I felt insecure about my physique. Americans are naturally big, and US colleges have athletic scholarships, so there were a lot of people in great shape on campus.
So, I decided to transform my body and signed up for classes offered by the university in personal training, kickboxing, fitness swimming, Latin dance, online fitness and nutrition. I went to the gym every day for the next nine months. When the gym was closed, I would run on the running track near it.
During the academic year, a few people noticed my physical transformation, and asked to join me in the gym; some friends from Oman reached out asking how I made so much progress, and I would share my tips, tricks, and knowledge.
How did Smart Approach Fitness come to be?
A few years later, when I was in the UK, I got in touch with an old friend, and when I got back to Oman, she reached out and asked me to train her. Due to the culture difference she wasn’t comfortable with training in a mixed gym, so I wrote down her workouts in Microsoft Word files and sent them to her weekly, along with her meal plan.
She was the one who suggested doing it as a business! And that is exactly what I did…that’s how Smart Approach Fitness came to life.
Why was it important to bring personal training and nutrition to an online platform in Oman?
The way personal training currently works in Oman is, you go to a gym, pay for an hour of training, come back a day later and do it again. There is no structure and no plan of progression. Nutritionists tell you what to eat, give you a meal plan based on your goals and all you have to do is follow it. That’s great for athletes, but is not geared towards the general population.
An online strategy was the solution to tackle both these problems. We build personalised plans for our clients based on a ‘needs’ analysis – injury, age, limitation, time and goal. We then add them to our apps where they create profiles. With the workout app, they can view each exercise with notes and a video on how to perform it. On the nutrition coaching app, they get daily lessons, tasks, tips, and questions. After each lesson, there is a task which helps them build good nutrition habits. Offering the service online gives the person the flexibility to fit fitness within their own schedule. Plus, they get their nutrition coaching in the comfort of their home. Our aim is to give our clients enough knowledge to know how to stay fit without us in the future.
Describe the services you offer at Smart Approach Fitness.
We currently have three services open to the public and one that is private.
We offer an online package that includes a tailored workout plan, nutrition coaching, weekly check-ins, 24/7 WhatsApp communication, and email support. Next is our hybrid coaching; it’s the same as the online package but also includes six in-person gym sessions for the ones that want an extra push in the gym. The third service we offer is nutrition coaching for those who need help with their nutrition.
Our private program is sport specific training. Due to the nature of training athletes in their specific sport, we don’t offer this package to everyone.
What are your hopes for Smart Approach Fitness?
At Smart Approach Fitness, we’ll keep providing the best services we can. We would like to go around gyms in Oman and provide workshops, trainings, or work together on projects. We would love to have our own gym, and also have a real female-only gym. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but that’s the beauty of it. Fitness is not a destination, it’s a journey, and we have just begun our journey of making Oman fit! All the best, Saif Al Rawahi!