INSTRUCTOR BACKGROUND

I began training in the early 1980s when I was 4 years old, I started by training in Judo which I did for around 4 years.

In 1992 as a teenager I returned to training and from 1992 to 2003 I trained in Judo, Karate, Shootfighting, Traditional Jujitsu, Submission Grappling and dabbled in Thai Boxing.  I competed at North of England level in Judo during the late 1990s and trained for around 11 years in different martial arts.

I stopped training regularly in 2003, but made various returns to training in 2008, 2009 for around 6 weeks and then stopped.  My fitness levels were not what they were 10 years previously and so I drifted out of training.

In September 2017 after a massive lay off I returned to training tipping the scales at 95kg (or 15 stones), a slight weight increase from my competition days of 63kg (around 9 and 1/2 stones).

In 9 weeks, I had lost 14kg (or 2 stones) and so I had gone from 15 stones to 13 stones in 9 weeks (photo on right).

When I returned to training, I had problems with my joints due to increased weight, problems with my breathing due to increased weight and begining to develop an erratic heart beat and dizziness.

In September 2017 I was in a mess and my health going down the pan, so it was a choice of going to the doctor and probably getting tablets shoved down my throat for the rest of my live and the joys of hip and knee replacements, plus increasing limited movements.

Or I could return to training and try to sort myself out.  I began to train in Brazilian Jujitsu and the groundwork side of Judo, I could no longer do the throwing side of judo, but I was OK with the groundwork.

Training in your 40s is much harder than it was 20 years previously and I was limited due to lack of speed, cardio and fitness (compared to how I was back in the 1990s).

I trained once per week, did what I could and lost the 2 stones in 9 weeks, and that was training at a much slower pace than I used to. I continued to train until March 2020 when the club shut down due to Covid.

The home online fitness sessions uses much of the fitness work in all the martial arts listed above, these exercises are very effective for fitness and also ideal for people who want to develop a leaner, more toned all over bodyshape.

This type of fitness delivers very fast results, as seen on the before and after photos.