“It was so strenuous”—how a celebrity PT went from almost quitting the gym to the new star trainer on Chris Hemsworth’s Centr app

First encounters with exercise rarely result in love at first sight. And never has that been more true than for Korey Rowe, the new star trainer on Chris Hemsworth’s fitness app Centr.

The former model-turned-celebrity PT was 17 years old, and a slight 140lb, when he first stepped foot in a gym. “I got into fitness because of my older brother, he was seven years older and an athletic natural,” Rowe tells Fit&Well. “For most of my early years, I struggled with feeling weak and not being confident in my body, but I watched him be so comfortable playing sports. He was my north star.”

Having begged his mum to take him, Rowe joined two friends in the gym, and instantly regretted it.

“My first day was humiliating,” he says. “I really struggled. A lot of what I knew about myself was revealed in that moment. I knew I needed to be stronger. I could barely do eight push-ups on my knees. I actually had rhabdomyolysis on my first day in the gym because it was so strenuous for me—and I was only doing bodyweight.”

Humbled, humiliated and reeling from rhabdo, a rare condition in which muscle tissue breaks down due to excessive high-intensity exercise, Rowe returned home knowing he had a decision to make.

“I could either back off because it was such a bad experience, or I was going to take on the growth mindset and say, maybe if I keep on going, things will be different,” says Rowe.

“I don't know why I chose the growth mindset because everything in me told me to do the opposite, but I did and immediately, I started doing push-ups at home. Something about the ability to get better, even if it was a small increment, was all I needed to believe that things could rapidly evolve.”

After six months, Rowe says he was unrecognizable to his peers. “That was the sort of validation and proof I needed to say, if I kept on going, things would turn out well.”

Fast forward a few years, and Rowe had started playing sports and feeling more confident in his body.

He qualified as a personal trainer and moved to New York, which led to helping develop other trainers, and a role as director of operations and leading fitness classes for global brands.

And yet that bruising encounter on his first day in the gym has never left him. “Most of what I'm doing today, I thought I could never do,” says Rowe. “But that helps me connect with my clients, the feeling of [a workout] being insurmountable that they have, I felt that too.”

Now, that growth mindset of small incremental improvement is part of his philosophy and something he tries to instill in his 1.2 million followers. “I know the power of just believing that small progress does matter, and that it will compound over time,” he says.

“Since then my ‘why’ has changed. Now it’s about how I can help people find a protocol, and a way of interacting with wellness, that they can do for a lifetime—so they can feel their best. They don't have to think about their health because their health is in a great place."

By overcoming personal setbacks and making fitness a lifelong habit, you'll be “more available to be great moms, great dads, great entrepreneurs and great athletes.”