Lorna Bremner – Muay Thai Trainer (Morning Classes, Intermediate Classes and Personal Training), Receptionist

Today I had the unusual pleasure of interviewing myself for our Urban Trainer Profiles! Just roll with me here on this one….

Hey Lorna, I’m glad you had a little spare time between greeting our students, sorting out our memberships and teaching classes to telepathically answer my questions. What drew you to Muaythai?

Well, I was a bit lost and falling into some pretty bad decisions, so a friend of mine started teaching me boxing to help clear my head and get my body moving, and I loved it. Once I got the hang of the punches though, I felt like I wanted to use more of my body and Muaythai was definitely the best answer.

Bad decisions? I didn’t listen to anything you said after that because I was curious what you meant (though I know exactly what you meant). What was it like to start training after all that drinking and drugs?

Oh man, it was SO hard. I was too scared to go to a class, so I just did PT sessions with a trainer in Margaret river – I think I did 4 sessions a week for 3 weeks while I was down there trying to escape my bad habits in Darwin. He did NOT take it easy on me, I remember at one point he had to stop to ask if I had asthma to make sure I wasn’t dying…I don’t have asthma, I was just a mess haha.

Ah yuck I remember that – but despite feeling like you were dying, you obviously enjoyed it enough to keep at it?

Yeah it was incredible, for the first time in 6 years, I finally felt a tiny bit of self-respect and respect for my body. I remember once while I was crumbling during a round of push-ups, he yelled at me “Do you want to be a champion?!!” I just laughed at how ridiculous that was, but now I’ve fought for one title, and am fighting for another one this weekend …. Amazing how much things have changed.

Awesome – so you’ve been fighting for about a year and a half, with only one loss. That’s a pretty good effort so far; any fights in particular stand out?

Nationals was pretty surreal, I won the first fight by TKO in the first round, and then had to face a former world champ in the finals… she had something like 25 fights to my 5; I was so scared going into the ring, that as soon as the bell rang, I just completely shut down. I was getting hit, and I just covered up and stood there until the ref gave me an 8 count – she was looking at me like, “Well, are you going to fight or not?” Nothing was wrong with me, I realised it was all in my head, so I pressed on, and went all 3 rounds to have one of my best fights to date. It’s the fight I lost, but it was good to know that I can still fight through the ultimate worst mind-state in the ring, and survive.

That’s a good thing to remember, especially in the face of all the crazy doubts your mind invents before we step in the ring – what’s it like to prepare for a fight?

Every single fight is different; my mind is so inventive that as soon as I think I’ve dealt with the fear or doubt, it will just feed me another one. Like, “you’re taking this too seriously”, then I’ll deal with that, and my silly head will go, “oh who do you think you are, so relaxed? You’re not even taking this seriously at all, you’re going to get annihilated.”

It’s just noise at the end of the day, and luckily, I’ve got amazing trainers and friends that listen and remind me that I’m just insane and everything is fine.

 Of course it is, talking to yourself in a loop is totally normal…. So why Urban Fight Gym?

I knew straight away that this place felt like home. Richie and Blair were immediately welcoming and supportive, yet they made me work hard and the training was solid. I had been to Muaythai classes at other gyms that felt like boxercise and I was so impressed with the high level of the training, fitness, and other students in class. And now that I’ve been here for a while, it’s almost overwhelming how much this family have looked after me in and out of the ring; it’s hard to put into words how grateful I am for everything my life has become because of these guys.

Ah that’s very cool, I’m glad you had a chance to do this interview and let them know how you feel. What do you do when you’re not here?

I am an artist, I write stuff (like this!) and I make a very ridiculous web series about art. I like reading books and thinking about stuff, and spend most of my life in my bedroom trying to communicate to other people without actually interacting with them. Then I come here to socialise; through training, teaching classes, and personal training sessions, I get to have a good chat with everyone that comes through the door.

Well that’s good, it’s important that we get out of our head from time to time, right? What can people expect if they train with you?

Lots of laughs and probably too much honesty, lots of Muaythai (fitness and technique) and some yoga-ish stretching to keep everything in balance. I like the idea of human optimisation, and the combination of self-awareness, self-respect, and self-reliance that comes with a well-rounded Muaythai practice is the best thing I’ve found to balance all aspects of my body and my mind.

Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. Any last words?

Come say hello and give your body a chance to work the way it’s designed to work – and have heaps of fun in the process ?.

Come in to Urban Fight Gym any day of the week and meet the Crew! Class Timetables are here: https://www.urbanfightgym.com/classes/class-timetable/