In less than 48 hours, Trent Ruban has become a digital superstar.
Wednesday night, the Kitchener-based personal trainer performed a unique dance for his GoodLife Fitness coworkers.
Set to Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel,” the most notable thing about the sequence is what’s under Ruban as he does it – a moving treadmill.
At times, it seems more like a high-intensity workout. Ruban admits that 60 seconds of treadmill dancing can leave him as tired as a 20-minute workout.
“I don’t really think of the moves. The music tells me what to do,” he said.
Franni Kallweit, one of his coworkers, captured Wednesday’s dance on video.
She posted it to Facebook before going to bed, and woke up to find a viral hit on her hands.
In the two days since then, the video has appeared on national news websites and been featured on Canada AM.
As of Friday afternoon, it had more than 110,000 views.
Kallweit now jokingly refers to herself as Ruban’s “agent” and – much less jokingly – praises him for the work ethic he brings to the Fairway Road gym.
“He’s a great coworker. He’s so much fun,” she told CTV News.
For Ruban himself, the video’s success has been as unexpected as it has quick.
The former dance teacher and cruise ship dancer says he’s hearing “nothing but praise” from people who have seen it.
He’s also been fielding requests to start up a “treadmill dance boot camp” – an idea he admits he’s already started to consider.
“I would definitely start them off very slow … and then just work our way up from there,” he said.
While the video is attracting attention well outside Kitchener, it’s also giving some of Ruban’s gymmates a new look at one of the facility’s newest trainers.
Jen Melnyk had seen the video before she arrived at GoodLife for a Friday workout, but didn’t realize where it was filmed.
“(I thought) it was just some random guy doing crazy stuff on a treadmill,” she said.
“I didn’t realize it was him.”
