From as early as he can remember, Neil has always been an active person particularly playing football until injuries and business forced him to give that up. Neil’s football career peaked when he played for Dorset Under 21’s when he was just 18 and he also played a number of times against professionals teams like Tottenham Hotspur Under 21’s (including Peter Crouch & Ledley King), Gillingham, Southampton, AFC Bournemouth & Bristol City. Regular training & playing enabled Neil to stay fit and he also made many great friends through playing sport regulalry.
Since “retiring” from football a few years ago Neil was struggling to find something new that he could do which would give him the same benefits he had previously. His girlfriend at the time (now his wife) had started attending a Personal Training & Fitness Centre in Chelmsford. Neil had never been a regular attendee at a normal gym but this was different. It was a small, independant training centre where the emphasis was on getting fit but by also combining some elements of personal development.
Neil started working on a one to one basis with James St Pierre from Unique Results in 2007 and has been every week since. As a business owner also, James & Neil share many of the same experiences but also strongly believe in the power of personal development. James emphasises the importance of setting goals for health and fitness which is something that not many people do. Whether that is to do with how much you weigh, how much you can lift, how fast you can run or how many push ups you can do it is important to set some goals and maintain a focus to your training.
Neil has lost weight, got stronger and leaner and become a regular trainer since working with James. One of the things that James encouraged Neil to do was to go out running in between their personal training sessions. After starting with 5km runs which increased to 10km and then 10m and then half marathons, Neil completed the London Marathon in 2010 in just over 4 hours. Here is a picture of me on a training run for that event with the Olympic legend, Daley Thompson who is a big supporter of the Barnardo’s charity.
If you are considering running to improve your health and fitness Neil would recommend a book called ‘Slow Burn’ by Stu Mittleman. Stu Mittleman is an ultra distance runner who has a unique way of getting you thinking about running. Most people run and actually use up all the sugar reserves first and so they effectively burn themselves out before they run any major distances. By running slower and burning fat first instead of sugar you can run for much longer and get fitter quicker, easier and in a less painful way.
Neil now also plays golf, goes spinning and also occasionally does some boxing sparring. Check out a video of Neil in action here: (He’s in the red gloves!)
In 2012 Neil has also set some personal best running times as follows:
10 mile run in 1 hour & 16 minutes.
Half marathon run in 1 hour & 43 minutes.