A Chichester gym co-owner on building the business from scratch and why Covid was 'a nightmare' | Vicky Meets

Core Results has just celebrated its 10th anniversary. What’s the back story? Greg and I have built the business from scratch. Within six months we outgrew our first space, but the landlord also owned the space we currently occupy, at the rear of Game, Set and Match on Quarry Lane. We’ve been here ever since, using more of the space as we grew.

Will you tell me about your own fitness journey? I was rubbish at sport at school! I started work at 15 and got a lot of ribbing for being skinny. I started training on my 16th birthday. I wasn’t talented, but I was disciplined; I never missed a session.

Talking to a friend, he suggested I think about coaching. I did a course at college and I loved it. In fact, I did so well that the following year I taughtthe course!

How does Core Results work? The current model is based on a maximum of eight people being trained by one trainer.The whole focus is that you come into a booked session and that you are coached. Our typical client is someone in their 50s. A mix of men and women, we do have some husbands and wives who come to sessions together.

Why is training important for older people? It comes down to simple functional movement; if you don’t use your body then you will lose the ability to bend, to get up and down from the floor, to climb stairs, to lift things, to turn – really basic stuff. And because we’re used to sitting on our bums, at a keyboard or driving, we use zero muscles and burn zero calories.

Once you get over 50 it’s more important than ever to keep mobile and to keep fit. I trained a 92-year-old a few months ago. He was still driving and he wanted to look after himself as best he could.

You can still work out with a disability or if you have limited mobility. And it isn’t a huge investment of time. You’ve got 23 hours a day when you don’t need to be with us. A few times a week you need to be with us for just one hour.

Did the pandemic impact on the business? Covid was a nightmare. We lost clients and we had to buy more kit to reduce how much people touched each piece of equipment. On the other hand, we set out the gym by marking out individual ‘pods’ during Covid. This worked so well that we’ve kept it this way.

Does training lift your mood? Good physical health supports good mental health. Training has always helped me. Sometimes it’s the last thing you want to do, but actually doing something that releases your brain and that gets your heart going will release endorphins and lift your mood.

How do people find out more? Come for a free coaching session and see how you get on. More info at coreresults.co.uk

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