Silvino Domingos: Given a Second Chance by Fight For Peace
Inspiring Story by Suzanne Wrack
Fitness professionals are a varied bunch, as we all know. We caught up with Silvino Domingos, who was supported to become a PT by Fight for Peace after an inauspicious start in life
Founded in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in 2000, Fight for Peace (FFP) uses boxing and martial arts alongside education to engage and offer opportunities to disenfranchised people aged 25 and under.
It’s apt that I meet one of the organisation's biggest success stories in a place that represents opportunity, something that was missing from his area growing up.
With a gym bag slung over his shoulder, 29-year-old PT Silvino Domingos unlocks the gates of the Fight for Peace building and lets us in. It’s clear this is a building going through change: new toilets and showers are being built to help encourage more young women to use the gym.
A boxing ring takes centre stage and behind it all, a labyrinth of training areas, back rooms and offices.
The problem of 'nothing' to do
Having grown up on an estate in North London where “there wasn’t really much to do,” Silvino was 20 when he was jailed for four years for firearms possession. When I ask if there was an epiphany, an “I want to change” moment while inside, he shrugs.
I just didn’t want to be a 35-year-old punk doing nothing. There was no light bulb going off or anything like that. I always considered myself a good guy. It was more to do with someone giving me an opportunity.
“It’s like you’re in a war-torn country. You’re going to have to do what you have to do to exist. It’s not the same but that’s what it felt like. This is what you’re stuck with. School was never really my thing, and outside of that there was nothing. So, when this opportunity came, I took it with both hands.”
Silvino's journey: Learning of FFP
Silvino was on day release when he came to know of FFP. It came about when surprising his mum didn’t quite go to plan.
“I just assumed she was going to be home. I turned up at the house and she wasn’t in. That’s probably the best thing that ever happened to me.”
With some cash in his pocket and time to kill, he headed to the nearest gym and started working out.
“I started talking to a guy. We moved through the gym and started doing tricks with the bars and I just kept beating him, at pretty much everything.” Impressed, his new buddy Oscar told him about FFP and encouraged Silvino to head down.
“I didn’t want to tell him ‘oh, by the way, I’m going back to prison in a couple of hours’. So, I took down his number.”
Out again not long after, Silvino contacted Oscar and headed to the gym for “one of the most painful sessions of my life. I didn’t walk out of the gym, I crawled out.”
Silvino's new family at FFP
Over the following period, Silvino used his release days to visit his mum then take part in sessions and train at the gym. They would revolve around Muay Thai, kick-boxing and boxing. It was high-intensity training that would steam up the whole room.
Shortly before his release date he approached the tutors and divulged that he was a serving prisoner. Sensing the need to keep him off the streets, they made room for him on a course that was already one month in and fully booked.
With restricted movement part of his release, he was homeless and hopping from sofa to sofa, spending 12 hours a day at the gym in-between. The place became his home, the tutors and fellow trainees his family. When there weren’t sessions running, he would sit and read over course materials to the point where he knew them off by heart. “I passed the course with pretty high marks.”
How high?
“100%, I think,” Silvino answers, with a modest smile.
Silvino swiftly completed his Level 2 Certificate in Personal Training and FFP helped secure him a discounted position on a Level 3 course. He saved up to fund the rest of it, working on reception and helping run sessions. Then he decided to go into full-time personal training.
The best thing they did for me is that they didn’t hand me anything on a plate, they didn’t tell me what to do, they just gave me options, positives and negatives and let me choose. They weren’t trying to sell me anything, they actually cared. ‘If you want an education, here’s what we can provide, if not you can just use the gym’.”
Silvino’s USP
With his fitness studio now open from 6am to 9pm seven days a week, Silvino had to put in some extreme hours to make his career move work.
“For the first couple of months what drove me was not losing money. I didn’t need to make money, but I needed to break even. Eventually it started to pay off.”
Specialising in boxing and martial arts has proved to be his USP. No other trainer in the gym has that string to their bow. His unique journey into the work has seen him engaging with people from such a wide variety of backgrounds, making it easy for him to patiently relate to the struggles of those trying to change the way they look, feel or eat.
I can see things from their perspective more than I would be able to if I hadn’t had all these challenges.”
The FFP family extended to the gym. Already a close-knit bunch, long stretches of empty time made it easy to get to know each other. They looked out for each other's development, recommending books, programmes, sharing experiences and techniques. While boxing and martial arts side is a specialism, 50% of his clients don’t do either, they do general fitness.
A mistake a lot of people make is that they try to specialise in everything. Like if I get a client that says ‘I want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger’ I will tell them straight; ‘I can’t do that. I can help you build a substantial amount of muscle and you will look completely different. I can get you closer, but then I will have to recommend you to someone else.’ ”
Silvino prioritises honesty with clients
“I won’t try to sell a dream to someone else, I think one thing every single client will say is I’m always honest with them,” Silvino asserts.
They trust you with their life. They tell you stories about their problems. It’s nice to have that trust. They expose themselves and their insecurities to a stranger and it’s not easy.
The faith that clients put in him has had a big effect on his self-worth.
“Making sure that both you and the client are accountable for results is definitely important. Sometimes the results might not be achievable for various reasons out of your control, but as long as the client knows this and you have spoken to them and come to an agreement, it’s fully understandable.”
Communication is key, but goal-setting is fundamental.
"Finding ways to measure the work and setting goals and ways to meet them is most important.”
'Sport has changed the course of his life'
Having been at LAX’s London Wall for three years, Silvino is now juggling being a full-time sports science student at the University of East London (UEL) with 25 hours a week of personal training. He’s also a member of staff at FFP.
After helping get his personal training, boxing and first aid qualifications, FFP were again on hand to help Silvino get into university, contacting UEL on his behalf. His passion for training athletes prompted his need for further qualifications.
“A personal training qualification isn’t enough for me. My main goal is to do sports biomechanics. I want to work in elite sports.”
Imagining where he could be now if he had had these opportunities sooner, I ask him why he thinks that sport has engaged him in a way that education couldn’t.
There’s a competitive side to sport that education just doesn’t have. You’re always taking on a different opponent. The more you do it, the better you physically and mentally feel. Study just doesn’t do it in the same addictive way.”
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