Former primary schoolteacher Adrian McDonnell long hankered for a career as a personal fitness trainer. In the summer before he started his teaching career, he had spent time on Muscle Beach in California, the birthplace of the physical fitness boom in the US in the 1930s.
“I was inspired the number of fit guys I saw there, making full-time careers as personal trainers. If they could do this for a living, why couldn’t I?” says McDonnell, who grew up near Tuam in Co Galway.
So, when he returned to Ireland, he taught by day in Galway, studied for his PT Certificate at night and soon developed a significant clientele working out of a local gym. When the pandemic hit in 2020, he realised he needed to take a radical change of direction.
“I’ve learned in life that when you need to make a change, you need to ask who, rather than how. Who can help you is the key thing. I hired a mentor and he helped me to develop all the skills and knowledge I needed to launch an online fitness business. Within six months I was in a strong enough position to quit my teaching job.”
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McDonnell also felt that he needed to be in a growth environment so, soon after, decided to follow his mentor’s footsteps and relocate to Dubai. It’s a move he doesn’t regret.
“There’s a very good environment of entrepreneurs and business owners and a very good fitness scene, so I took a leap of faith. I’m really glad that I made the move.”
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It wasn’t all plain sailing at first, having to navigate visas and adjust to living in a predominantly Muslim country, but he is now happy to call Dubai home.
One of the big attractions for him is how safe the United Arab Emirates is.
“When I moved into my first apartment, I didn’t even have a key for the front door, it was left open constantly. You could leave the keys in the ignition of your car and your phone down in the gym and you know it would still be there when you came back.”
Dubai’s immense wealth is another distinguishing factor. In a city where luxury is conspicuous, when McDonnell first visited a gym, he was struck by the number of high-end sports cars parked outside.
One of the key attractions of working in Dubai is the absence of tax. The Emirate doesn’t levy income tax on individuals, though businesses over a certain scale need to charge VAT. This has allowed McDonnell the chance to reinvest some of his income in growing his business, which now has three other Irish-based coaches.
McLifestyle Fitness now has more 100 clients who receive both regular one-on-one and group coaching sessions online on exercise, nutrition and meal planning.
The business’s typical client is a middle-aged man who has neglected his health while focusing on career and family responsibilities over the years, but who now has the time and motivation to do something about it.
“Men tend to wait for a red flag,” says McDonnell. “That could be a wake-up call from a doctor or somebody close to them passing away or simply returning from a sun holiday where they were not comfortable taking their top off.”
He takes a holistic approach. Most clients will have realistic objectives about they want to achieve, such as reducing excess weight and boosting their energy levels, often with bonus positive outcomes for health issues such as cholesterol levels or sleep apnoea.
One of the first things he recommends his clients do is to invest in a set of dumbbells and an adjustable bench if they don’t want to take out a gym subscription, and to clean out their kitchen cupboards of processed high-fat foods.
“If someone comes to us with a routine of being addicted to sugar, coffee or takeaways, I’m not going to lie; the first three weeks are going to be hell.”
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McDonnell enjoys the opportunities Dubai offers for networking and meeting like-minded people. “You can go to somewhere like the Hotel Palm Jumeirah and there could be 200-plus entrepreneurs in a room, and you get to learn and network. It opens you up to new experiences and contacts.”
He’s also part of a running club that regularly does 6am sunrise runs to avoid the intense heat. “It is an amazing experience seeing the sun rise with the Burj Khalifa [the world’s tallest building] in the distance and it fills me with gratitude.”
Dubai has its own culture, rules and differences to European norms and McDonnell says “you would always be cautious not to step out of line”.
“If you are with a partner, holding hands is fine, but kissing in public is frowned upon and you need to dress respectfully, no matter what the temperature. You cannot buy alcohol casually in a supermarket or online, you need an Emirates ID; and you are not allowed drink in public areas.”
McDonnell comes home three times a year to catch up with friends and family and uses the opportunity to organise live events with the business’s Irish-based clients.
“I miss the green grass. It’s essentially a city in a dessert, with a lot of construction work going on. The other is the fresh air. When I get back to Ireland, that really hits me. There’s also the GAA matches. I can get to see them on TV but there’s not the same buzz over there.
“No place is going to tick every box of course, but Dubai certainly ticks enough of them for me.”
