Elia Siaperas & Carly Newson Personal Trainers

Elia and Carly Siaperas are the ultimate power couple: together they own their own PT studio, are married with their first child, and continue to compete at various races and fitness events. They talk to Sundried about 

Please tell us about sporting events you have taken part in or have coming up. 

Elia has presented 3 celebrity fitness DVDs. In 2017 he did the Regent's Park 10k and the Richmond Half Marathon. He is competing at the Natural Body Building Show (BNBF) in St Albans in July and is running the Bournemouth Half Marathon in October. Carly presented twice at Be:Fit London. Throughout 2013-2015 she was teaching for Nike and NTC at stores throughout London and holding the warm up for Nike We Own The Night 10k. She has competed at BodyPower and The Olympia for Optimum Nutrition and has written for numerous health and fitness magazines. Now that she has had her first baby, she will be competing at BodyPower representing Optimum Nutrition again. Their jointly owned PT studio FlexPT opened in 2014 and this year they are opening up a second studio in August. 

Tell us about your journey to fitness? Where did it all start?

Elia - I started playing football from the age of 8 up to 18 and branched into fitness from there. I fell in love with the fitness industry and have never looked back since. I am now also the Studio Manger at The Laboratory Spa and Health Club in North London where I have been for 15 years and where I also teach group fitness classes. I was also nominated for Personal Trainer Of The Year back in 2014.

Carly - I was originally a professional dancer, dancing for pop acts such as Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue on live TV shows and moved into the fitness industry because of my love for performing and keeping fit. I too also teach a wide variety of group fitness classes at The Laboratory Spa and Health Club North London and we both are personal trainers at our own studio FlexPT in North London.

What are your training goals now?

Elia- To become competitive in 10k running and to compete in Natural Body Building shows yearly. Carly - To keep strong, fit and healthy for my son and to

Carly - To keep strong, fit and healthy for my son and to keep working on developing our studio to make it a success.

Tell us one unusual fact we wouldn’t know about you:

We're boring! We don't have anything... we can't think of anything!

What would future you, tell yourself when you were starting out?

We both believe in being passionate and confident in your brand and ability but being humble at the same time. So we would tell anyone starting out to believe in themselves.

Do you follow a specific nutrition plan? If so, what/when do you eat?

We both follow a flexible dieting approach called IIFYM. 90% of the food we eat is nutritious and wholesome but the remaining 10% allows us to enjoy a few treats. This actually helps stop cravings whilst dieting as you're not restricting any food type and it is actually sustainable in the long term. We don't believe in short-term crash diets!

What do you do to keep your clients motivated? Do you have any top tips to keep motivated?

Set goals - i.e. for a holiday or an event; have something to work towards. Make the sessions enjoyable and varied so they are always wanting more. Take progress pictures or send us food diary weekly.

Talk us through your training regime.

Both our programs are based on athletic and strength training. We like to incorporate compound lifts such as squat and deadlift and also work in plyometric work a few times a week which helps with running, power and performance. Carly's training is a little different at the moment as she is currently working out a lot more from home due to being with our son, but this is no excuse! Carly is a firm believer in short intense workouts due to having limited time so HIIT training and circuits are perfect for her at the moment.

How do you keep your fitness knowledge up to date? 

We get quite a lot of ideas from Youtube and social media; we learn and bounce ideas off other PT's at our studio and we try to read up on journals and articles as much as we can. 

What are your top 3 trainer tips?

• To be consistent.
• Try and have protein in every meal
• Drink lots of water and eat green veg!

If you could only do one workout for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

Circuit Class as it's a mixture of everything - strength training and cardio

What are your training goals?

Elia - To get stronger in the gym on my main compound lifts and to break into the sub 40-minute mark of a 10k

Carly - To try and stay in top shape to show it's possible to get back in shape after having a baby.

Why work with Sundried?

We believe in the brand ethos. It's an inspiring brand that cares about the environment which we feel is something special in an activewear brand. The clothing is also comfortable and lightweight which helps performance.

Favourite fitness quote:

"Last set, best set!"