Colin Reid: director and co-owner, Soldiers of Fitness Ltd.
by Scott Messenger
On my first encounter with Corporal Colin Reid, he made me want to vomit. He does that to people. But that’s what they pay him for. Reid co-owns and operates the Edmonton chapter of Soldiers of Fitness Ltd. (SOF), the only boot camp-style training program in Canada run by real soldiers. With a tour of duty as an infantryman in Bosnia in 2001, continued service as a reservist, and since co-founding the company with Karth Sahadevan in Edmonton in 2004, Reid promises a workout experience as close to an hour and a half in the army as you can get without actually signing up. And despite the pushups, crunches, running and the 100-yard belly-crawl that churned my guts that day last spring, enough newbie “troops” continue to enlist to have recently justified franchising beyond the company-owned Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto outlets. Red Deer and Chilliwack: don’t eat much before class.
AV: How did this start?
CR: I’ve served on a lot of U.S. and British bases throughout my career. We talked to a bunch of guys who were running [these boot camps] and… the idea really appealed to us because we wanted to use what we learned in our training and give that back to people. For me, my own personal story is I had asthma as a kid. I was never really in that great of shape because of that and I needed the army to push me beyond my limits, to really show me what I could do.
How does the army help you overcome asthma?
It pushes you until you die or get over it (laughs).
What’s an average day for you?
I teach both classes in Edmonton [5:30 a.m. and p.m., weekdays] so I can stay on top of things and keep inventing new and interesting ways to torture people, and in between I do all the admin, pay bills, kit shop orders. Anything head office needs to do, I pretty much do.
How is SOF different from other boot camps?
At all our locations, the requirement is that you have to have at least one Canadian Forces soldier teaching every day to keep it authentic.
Authentic?
It’s the way that [leaders] use the team – group discipline. People need to be able to rely on each other and think “team” rather than “self.” For a lot of civilians, myself included, before I joined the army, it’s all about you. The army changes that way of thinking to be, “I’m not doing this for myself, I’m not doing this for Stephen Harper, I’m doing this for my buddy because if I don’t, he dies.” Push yourself, do the work, because if you don’t, the whole team is going to suffer.
You’re trying to beat the ego out of people?
That’s exactly what it is… [but] it’s very positive, group-oriented training.
How do “newbies” react?
The first day, I wear camouflage combats, boots and sunglasses, the whole nine yards, and you can see it in their eyes, they’re scared. [But] they’re there to get pushed. They’re there because they can’t get that kind of workout anywhere else.
Is there a high dropout rate?
We have an 80% to 85% retention rate.
How do you think military training contributes to being a business person?
The military teaches you to think on your feet, to adapt, to overcome, to never quit.
What do you like best about doing this?
I love teaching these people and pushing them to their limits…. In the military you learn that there’s nothing so bad that it can’t get worse. You just appreciate the day because you could be dead tomorrow. Obviously SOF isn’t that extreme, but it’s the same kind of thinking. These people really got their butts kicked, but at the end of the month they fought through all their pains and aches and bruises. And they’re better people because of it. I always tell these guys, “If North Korea ever invaded Canada, I would give you guys rifles, no problem.”
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