A 53-year-old personal trainer with more than 50,000 followers on TikTok is kickstarting a middle-aged fitness revolution after ditching desk jobs for a six-pack, saying: “It’s so rewarding when you get people to do things they never thought possible.”
Jason Smith, who lives with his wife Catherine, and their 14-year-old son, James, lost 18kg - just under 3st - in under four months after “mortality struck” on his 49th birthday, on December 8, 2019. Jason can now run around with his son playing football without getting out of breath – something he never thought he would be able to do – and his mental health has dramatically improved. In lockdown he began his personal training business, with his oldest client being 70 years old, while he also posts motivational videos to his thousands of followers on TikTok.
Jason’s favourite video is of him showing people how to do a ‘sissy squat’. He said: “It’s a very difficult squat to do. It’s named after the Greek mythological God who was condemned by Zeus to forever push a boulder up the hill (Sisyphus).”
