Andrew Rees – The Traveling Personal Trainer on Staying Healthy, Staying Fit, and Living Life to the Fullest

“At age 50 I am half way, I imagine the best is yet to come. I have a plan of how to keep achieving. The person I was is not forgotten but the person I aspire to be is something else completely.”

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Every so often, we meet someone who forever alters the course of our life.

Today’s episode is with Andrew Rees, who I met back in 2018.

Andrew was born in Northern Ireland and was adopted at a young age and spent his childhood growing up in Russia, Hungary, and Spain. 

His family eventually moved back to England, where he joined the army at age 16. 

After a couple of years in the English army, he completed school and began coaching kids sports and focused on personal fitness.

Andrew’s continued growth led him to move to Switzerland to earn his personal fitness, health, and nutrition degree. 

Of note, these classes were taught in German, which Andrew had to learn in parallel to his classes.

Andrew caught his first break when he applied for a personal trainer position with a facility associated with the Swiss Olympic Organization. 

It was here that Andrew grew his skills and learned how to get people to believe in themselves and to do things they never thought was possible. 

He talks about the impact he had on an athlete training for the Paralympics and the impact she had on him. 

In 2016, Andrew and his American wife moved from Switzerland to Michigan, where Andrew was looking for ways to implement the skills he learned as a personal trainer and coach.

One year later, Andrew launched his personal training business, UrbanGym.

It started with Andrew driving a trailer packed with gym equipment and parking it next to athletic fields where he would conduct weekly drop-in fitness classes.

Eventually, he converted his garage to a gym and in a short time became the busiest trainer in Detroit. 

Which is how we eventually met. 

Since 2018, I have spent 2–3 hrs a week working out with Andrew. 

Andrew is not your ordinary personal trainer who tells you what to do and watches you struggle trying to do it!

As you’ll hear in this interview, Andrew brings much more than simply his advanced fitness knowledge to these workouts. 

His experience from traveling the world, working in various European countries, and being on his own journey of personal growth, brings a unique dynamic that I’ve never seen before in a personal trainer or fitness instructor. 

This is a special conversation where Andrew talks about his journey through life.

While Andrew has significantly improved my fitness over the years, our greatest interactions have been the conversations we have before and after our workout sessions. 

And I assure you, this conversation does not disappoint. 

I encourage you to set some time aside, turn up the volume, and listen to this wonderful conversation with the founder of UrbanGym, and my good friend, Andrew Rees.