A Personal Trainer Learned to Code by Treating Practice Like Push-Ups

The woman who drove up in a Range Rover was wearing Cartier bracelets. She walked into the gym like she always did, ready for her session. Tariq Gafori had been training her for a while but never asked what she did for work. One day, he finally did.

"I code," she said.

Tariq laughed inside. You had to be really smart for that, right? Years of school? A computer science degree?

"No," his client told him. "Honestly, you don't have to be super smart. Just basic math. Like algebra one."

That conversation in a gym in Fairfax, Virginia, changed everything. But it almost did not happen at all.

Tired of the Gym

Tariq was 30 years old, a personal trainer with a sport management degree from George Mason University. He had also played professional basketball. He knew how to work. He knew how to push through when things got hard. But he was tired.

Not the kind of tired you fix with a day off. The kind where you look at the next ten years and see the exact same thing. Early mornings, late nights, physically being in the gym all the time. He loved fitness. But he wanted to prove to himself that he could do something else.

"I wanted to prove myself that I can actually do this. I've always been able to be a trainer, but I wanted to show that to myself — I can do something else."

His client told him about the program. He looked it up. He was skeptical. But he watched the free seminar with Kuzzat Altay, and something clicked. This was real. He signed up.

When Everything Hit at Once

The first few weeks were fine. Then it all piled up.

Java. Front-end. Back-end. API testing. Database. Technical interview prep. Soft skills. Each piece made sense on its own, but putting them all together felt like drowning.

"At one point it did get overwhelming. It was like a whole lot of things coming up at once."

Tariq had moments where he wanted to quit. He sat there thinking, "I can't do this." The voice in his head was loud. But he had started, and he was not the kind of person who walked away from something once he committed.

He fell back on what he knew: break it down. One thing per day. One or two hours on this topic. Three hours max. Then move on to the next thing tomorrow. Do not try to learn everything at once.

It was not some fancy study strategy. It was the same approach he used to build a training plan for a client who needed to lose fifty pounds. You do not put them on a crash diet. You break it into steps.

Push-Ups for the Brain

Here is where Tariq's story gets interesting. Most career changers struggle because the work feels completely foreign. Nothing in their old life connects to their new one. But Tariq found the connection between the gym and the keyboard.

"You can't get better at push-ups if you don't do push-ups. So if you don't keep doing them, you're not going to get better with them. It's the same exact thing. Same thing as your mind — you got to get your mind stronger too, just by doing it."

He was not being poetic. He meant it literally. Your brain works like a muscle. You train it the same way. Short sessions, every single day, no skipping. Two hours. Three hours. Even thirty minutes. But you show up.

He compared learning to code to shooting a jump shot. You are not going to nail it on day one. You have to shoot it hundreds of times. Thousands. The repetition is what builds the skill. There are no shortcuts.

Tariq even combined his two worlds. After his training sessions at the gym, while doing his own workout, he would put in his AirPods and listen to recordings from the instructors. Soft skills practice while doing deadlifts. Technical review while on the treadmill. Every waking hour counted.

"After my whole day was done, when it was time for me to train myself, I would actually put in my AirPods and listen to the instructors about soft skills, technical, while I was working out."

"I Only Count Ten Reps"

One of the things Tariq kept coming back to was how little his previous education mattered. He had a sport management degree. He counted reps for a living. That was it.

"I thought I only count ten reps or twenty reps as a personal trainer. So when I was able to create frameworks and everything, I was like, you know, shocked within myself."

He was shocked not because the work was easy. It was hard. But he did it anyway. He built test automation frameworks. He learned Java. He learned front-end and back-end testing. And none of it required a computer science degree or some special gift for math.

The program put students into groups using Discord and LinkedIn. Tariq connected with people from Milwaukee, Chicago, Pennsylvania. They still keep in touch. He admits he is an in-person guy — it took him a while to get used to learning through a screen. But the relationships he built were real.

One Week, Thirty Applications, One Job

When the program ended and Tariq hit the job market, he was ready. But even he was surprised by how fast it happened.

He applied to about thirty jobs in his first week. One company called him back. He interviewed with them. He got the offer.

One week. That was it.

The job came with everything he wanted: remote work, good benefits, travel opportunities, and a salary he was extremely happy with. After years of trading hours for dollars in a gym, he was now working from anywhere.

"When I first got out in the job market, I was only in for about one week. I think I only applied for like thirty jobs. One job contacted me, and that job — I got the job with them."

What It Proved to Him

The money mattered. Tariq will tell you that. But it was not the main thing.

What mattered more was what the experience showed him about himself. For years, he thought personal training was all he could do. It was his identity. Then a client with Cartier bracelets and a Range Rover told him about coding, and seven months later he was building software test frameworks.

"It showed me how much potential I really have within myself. I always thought I was just gonna be a personal trainer for the rest of my life."

Now he knows he can take on anything. Not because it will be easy. Because he has proof that hard work, discipline, and daily repetition can carry him through things he never imagined doing.

Advice He Would Give You

Tariq has two pieces of advice, one for people just starting and one for people in the middle of it.

If you are just starting: do not be overwhelmed. Take it day by day. You are not behind. You are at the beginning.

If you are already in the middle and feeling like you cannot go on: do not be discouraged. There will be days where you want to turn your brain off and quit. That is normal. Push through it anyway.

He puts it simply: "Just put your foot through it and get through the door."

What You Can Take From Tariq's Story

• Treat learning like exercise. You do not get better by cramming once a week. Short daily sessions beat long weekend marathons every time. Even thirty minutes counts if you do it every single day.
• Break big goals into small pieces. When everything feels overwhelming, pick one topic and focus on it for a few hours. Then move on tomorrow. You do not have to learn it all at once.
• Your background does not disqualify you. Tariq counted reps. He had zero tech experience. He still built automation frameworks and got hired in a week. What matters is showing up and doing the work.
• Use dead time. Tariq listened to lessons while working out. Commuting, cooking, walking the dog — there are hours in your day you are not using. Fill them.
• Skepticism is fine, but do your research. Tariq did not believe it at first either. He watched the free seminar, did his homework, and then made a decision. Be skeptical. But do not let skepticism stop you from investigating.