Daryn's Gym

Hi, I'm Daryn. Daryn JNR.

And I'm the owner and general manager here at Miller & Sons Gym, in Johannesburg.

I know I don't look like your, like your regular gym owner, but that's kind of our USP.

We might be small, but we've got something for everybody.

A killer weight section.

Treadmills and bike machines

and a coffee shop with a smoothie bar for all your health needs.

I truly believe that you are what you eat, which is why everything here is responsibly sourced,

organic and sugar free.

I mean, sugar is basically nature's cocaine.

At least with the real shit, you lose weight.

There's a fat attack support group run by my sister, Bianca.

Only three things in life will tell you the truth, children, drunks,

and yoga pants.

And I'm a combination of all of them.

I'm disappointed in you.

Next.

Where most gyms are these impersonal sausage factories,

I like to make things a little bit more friendlier, more personalised.

A homemade protein ball on your bench for when you get here.

Pre-workout in our water fountain.

And then we have trainers who create a workout designed perfectly for you.

So flexible.

I'm committed to each of my clients body journeys, just as much as I'm committed to

my personal Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

I send them pictures from my daily workouts,

along with motivation from the Bible,

making sure that their spirits have as much gains as their abs.

Jesus is like my main guy.

I mean, beyond being the saviour of humanity and God's son,

his muscle to fat ratio in those old renaissance paintings, is inspirational.

Hashtag goals.

And my personal favourite, a pet section for all our fitness animals

who don't want to leave their pets at home.

It's run by Richard. He's almost finished with high school and he makes sure

that everyone is taken care of there.

I hate animals.

The only reason I am here is because I got caught smoking dope by my principal.

This is part of my community service.

8 weeks of this before I can join my boys on the coast for matric holiday.

That's if I don't get tetinus from all the rusty equipment they have here.

I even help the guys with their Vitamin D injections when they need me to.

We're basically the nice guys of the gym industry, you know.

"Kill-Them-With-Kindness" kind of vibes.

We have a lady coming in this afternoon who might teach yoga.

Have a seat.

So, if you could be any piece of gym equipment, which one would you be and why?

She approached me, personally, to ask me if I needed a yoga instructor

and being a kind of guy who likes to think out of the box,

I told her to come on in.

She's very pretty.

Anyway.

The area's gone through a bit of a boom

since the hipsters moved into Linden.

There's a steakhouse,

a sex shop,

and there's this new building going up across the road

that's got us all excited.

Nobody knows what it is, but Bianca says she heard it's a school for the blind.

I'm not here to fuck around.

I started as a personal trainer in Starz Fitness in Cape Town

about 4 years ago

and now

I run the most successful branch in the country.

But it's easy to rise through the ranks

when your competition is a bunch of skinny bitches

from Seapoint who close shop at 3:00 PM.

Fucking Capetonians and their 'work/life' balance.

They say you ain't shit until you've made it in Jozi

and my dream is to make Starz, the leading fitness brand in the country.

And that's why I'm here.

Starz is opening its flagship store and they want me to spearhead it.

Building is underway and we should be opening shop in the new year

just in time for the Resolution Crowd.

That's what we in the industry call all the people

who sign their gym contracts in the first week of January.

Nothing says welcome in to the New Year like a gym full of fat people.

Speaking of fat,

all these business ideas and a very long winter,

haven't been exactly kind to my own waistline.

Thank God for Photoshop and fat burners.

Abs.

That's beautiful and just smooth out the skin.

Perfect.

There's just a little snag to the vision board.

And that's the fact that the property isn't big enough to accommodate

all the things I'd like to have

but as luck would have it, there's a private gym across the

road that looks like it's going under.

We made an offer on the space to the previous owner, but that was declined.

Fortunately, he passed away a couple of months ago and we hope whoever runs it now

will be a little bit more accommodating.

My grandfather, Daryn SNR.

He owned the gym back in the sixties.

It was just called Miller's Gym.

Before he passed he handed it over to my dad.

They decided to call it Miller & Sons. They thought it sounded fancier.

That's my mom Starla, when she used to be a fitness model.

She comes in every day just to, just to visit.

Darren was like, well he was like a surprise.

Because, you see, his father and I had given up all hopes of conceiving.

He had taken this faulty batch of steroids and it had made him sterile and...

Ja no, everyone now would clutch their pearls if they hear that story

but back in the eighties we were all on it.

All of us.

But you know what? It just took like a couple of bottles of wine

and a hot night in Umhlanga to kick start things, and

nine months later, then, there was Daza.

When my dad passed away last year.

I came back from overseas to help run things, you know.

It being a family business and all.

I used to work on the cruise ships.

I used to help run the kiddies play area.

This was very exciting.

It was a lot of fun.

My favourite though is

this.

He looks scared but he was actually having a great time.

That's me. In the bunny outfit.

Look, it's not been easy.

Prices keep on going up and membership keeps on going down.

Everybody wants to be a part of one of those fancy gyms

for the points or to lower their insurance costs.

But at least we own the building, but being half a bar in debt has really

forced me to focus and think about other ways of bringing in cash.

We run a car wash from our parking lot, R200 for a premium wash

and R150 if you're a member.

I drive a taxi over the weekends.

Sorry.

I even did a massage course,

which seems to be really popular with some of the members.

Really popular.

Anyway, I have a pretty good team and we all do our best.

Even in these tough times, life can still be beautiful.

I love these guys.

Another way that I'm saving on cash is by sleeping at the gym.

And it's really not that bad.

There's no traffic to get to work.

I'm able to use the equipment without waiting in line,

and the treadmill is really comfortable to sleep on.

I call it my 'bedmill'.

It only fits one person, so I don't know what I'm going to do

when I get a girlfriend, but for now it's perfect.

If we can just make it through to December then we'll be fine.

Just till December.

Before we climb into the admin, I'd like to welcome a new face

at the Miller & Sons family.

This is Zintle, everybody. She's our new yoga instructor

or 'Yogi', as they say.

Thank you, Daryn.

Hi, everyone.

Hi, Zintle.

We've decided to lean into some more alternative fitness methods just

to bring in some new clients.

Zintle is trained in...

Ashtanga.

Ashtanga yoga, and we will be giving classes in the mornings and the evenings.

This is Jackson.

He's our head of personal training and social media.

Great to meet you.

If you're tired of that light stretching, maybe you should

join one of my training programs.

It's a workout.

Okay.

If you promise to finish one of my classes.

Deal.

Hashtag Miller time.

Hashtag ripped.

Hashtag your body is a temple.

Wow.

I promise he speaks in full sentences.

He has a degree in Kinesiology.

Don't let the hashtags and muscles fool you.

Truthfully,

I think yoga's from the devil.

It's a way for demons to enter you

but God didn't give me a spirit of fear

so I'll do the class.

I'll just be praying in tongues as they do their meditation stuff.

Putting on a full armor of God.

That's my sister Bianca.

She's the head of reception and runs the Fat Attack support group.

Welcome to the shit show.

And that's Jacques

he runs our smoothie bar

and he also makes the best coffees this side of Linden.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Okay, okay. That's enough.

1 meter, 1 meter, remember what I told you.

I have a bit of a reputation for

guiding people on their journeys to sexual enlightenment.

I studied tantric bodyworks at Mount Kailash in India

and I was ordained to bring this knowledge back to South Africa.

Men, women, I don't care.

A hole is a hole,

As long as they leave my space having had a multi-orgasmic experience

then I'm happy.

I especially love introducing straight boys to their prostates.

That's it bro, that's it.