Robbie Farah is no longer chopping down rugby league’s biggest men 50 times a game or raiding opposition defences with his laser-sharp guile.
But in the words of the Wests Tigers great, a new career venture is sure to “get the competitive juices flowing again”.
Farah and business partner Jai Ayoub have linked up with juggernaut Australian gym chain Body Fit Training, striking a deal that will see them open their own studio in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Five Dock. The pair are also planning to eventually open a second Body Fit Training gym in Marrickville and a pilates studio in Concord, having teamed up with Australian business KX Pilates.
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After building a reputation as a relentless competitor across 17 years with the Tigers, Rabbitohs, the NSW Blues, Australia and Lebanon, Farah is setting about helping others test their limits.
“You retire and you move on from the game and then you’ve got to figure out what your next passion is,” Farah told Wide World of Sports.
“For me, I obviously love my training and my healthy lifestyle and it’s something that right throughout my career held me in good order. You finish rugby league and you’ve lived a lifestyle for so long where physically you’re in top shape.
“It’s funny; when I retired I thought, ‘I’m going to let myself go and sort of eat what I want and put on a bit of weight’.
“But with training being a part of my life for so long it’s something that I continue to do. I probably train more than when I played, to be honest.”
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Test cricket captain Tim Paine, former T20 international skipper George Bailey and St Kilda legend Nick Riewoldt are among other past and present sportsmen to have bought stakes in Body Fit Training. Paine, Bailey and Riewoldt have joined forces to open several studios in Tasmania.
Former rugby league hard-nut Mark Carroll is another sports figure carving out a career in the gym, having established Spudds in the eastern Sydney suburb of Woolloomooloo.
“It just made sense for me to go into something in the health-and-fitness industry,” Farah said of his foray into the gym world.
“I’m passionate about it, I really love pushing myself in my training every day and to be able to get other people in and push them along and help them make improvements, whether it’s losing weight, gaining muscle, improving your cardiovascular system – it’s something that I’m really excited to do.”
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Ayoub will take control of the business side of the studios and Farah will divide his time between administration and, as he says, “getting hands-on”.
The former gun hooker, who also runs a luxury travel company called Two4Seven, became a qualified personal trainer through ex-teammate Chris Lawrence’s business some years ago.
“I’ll get in there, crack the whips on our clients … It’ll get the competitive juices flowing again,” Farah said with a laugh.
“I’ve been in that team environment where we’re pushing each other along. That’s something that I really loved when I played footy. And to be able to get back in the gym in that team environment where I can help out people, really make improvements in whatever goals they want to set – it’s something that I’m really looking forward to.”
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