Mackay's best personal trainers revealed

Mackay, you have picked your winner for the best personal trainer in town.

Mackay votes for the best personal trainer in town. Picture: Mike Richards

MACKAY, you have picked your winner for the best personal trainer in town. Well actually, make that dual winners.

Damien Everett and Vama Fatiaki from Red E Personal Training romped home to a resounding win in The Daily Mercury's readers' voting poll - each collecting 26 per cent of the votes.

For Mr Everett, a head trainer with the fitness centre, a career in the health and fitness sector was not originally on the cards. He wanted to be a marine biologist, and a passion for sport never resonated with him.

"I came from not being sporty, not being into fitness at all. Then one of my friends helped me transition from doing nothing ... and the change it had in my life was something I wanted to express and give to others," Mr Everett said.

"You flash back to 2010 - no sport, nothing. To go from that to where I am today and be able to help people is fantastic."

His motivation was in stark contrast to his colleague and co-winner.

Ms Fatiaki said she was enticed by the prospect of empowering women to be comfortable in their own skin and with their lifestyle.

It is this approach she said largely defined the gym.

"We may not have (big) numbers, but we're pretty close and we look out for one another. It's a family orientated fitness industry here," Ms Fatiaki said.

"Here we keep it real ... no matter the age or limitations in what you can do. We're empowering people and helping make a difference in their lives day to day.

"In here we encourage people to be themselves, we never compare anybody to anyone else which is why we always come back to the individual."

The passion shared by the victorious duo has resulted in the total transformation of some clients.

By personalising each program and experience to the client, Mr Everett said their initiative set them apart from other institutions.

"The biggest problem with the industry at the moment is you have a lot of people selling the same thing to vastly different people," he said.

"We work close with a lot of our clients to make sure if the program is not working for them how do we change it?

"I train 16-year-old athletes for running events to 73-year-old women who just want to be able to move better."

Honourable mentions from the voting poll go to Brad Swifte from Snap Fitness and Lee Renshaw from F45.

Originally published as Mackay's best personal trainers revealed