James Powell Personal Trainer
James is a passionate personal trainer whose main goal is to help his clients achieve theirs. He talks to Sundried about life in the fitness industry.
Please tell us about sporting events you have taken part in or have coming up.
I run events throughout the year, normally 28 or 30 day fat loss competitions. Everybody is guided by a step-by-step fat loss plan, over 1000 recipes, loads of home workouts and me available 24/7 to help offer support, guidance and weigh them.
People compete against each other to win amazing prizes, so far we have had a brand new Fitbit, £100 cash, and Dr Dre Beats Headphones plus loads of other prizes. The winner is whoever has lost the most percentage weight loss in 28 / 30 days.
Tell us about your journey to fitness? Where did it all start?
I was 19 and had no idea what I wanted to do in life, a friend of the family got me involved with his circuit training classes and then the interest started from there. I then started my first gym instructor course and haven't looked back since then. 12 years on I’m as motivated now about improving my clients and my life as I was back then. I've done loads of courses covering all areas of health, fitness and mindset and specialise in fat loss as that's where I see the best results for my clients. 12 years down the line and over 8 years self employed I'm still hungry as ever to improve and live by my own code to get the best out of my clients so they can get the best results they possibly can.
What are your training goals now?
I set goals for a lot of things and my training is no different. The training goals are to make steady, sustainable and achievable progress week by week by training 4 x per week with a specific programme focused on increasing strength, fitness and health.
Tell us one unusual fact we wouldn’t know about you:
Im a huge list builder, I mean its borderline OCD, lists of jobs I need to do daily, weekly , monthly and every 90 days. It helps me massively stay organised but yeah, like I said, borderline OCD.
What advice do you wish you'd been given when you first started out?
Make progress everyday, no matter how small. You don’t have to complete huge tasks everyday but have plans in place to improve yourself, your work and your mindset.
Do you follow a specific nutrition plan? If so, what/when do you eat?
Yes I do, I follow my own flexible nutrition plan. It's a well balanced diet plan which is set by an amount of calories I need to eat each day based on height, weight, activity level and BMI. I can have treats during the week so long as I am sensible and hit my calorie target but there are those times where I go a bit mad but the bottom line is, it's not the end of the world!
What do you do to keep your clients motivated? Do you have any top tips to keep motivated?
Every one of my clients sets their own 90 day goals and we work together to make a plan to make sure they hit their 30 day and 60 day targets and then their 90 day target. These targets help keep my clients on track and motivated.
Top tips for motivation are: set realistic goals, follow a nutrition and exercise plan that works for you, this means around your lifestyle, family, work and social life, the better it works around you the more chance you will stick to it!
Talk us through your training regime.
I normally train 4 x per week which is split into different body parts. I perform between 4-7 exercises with 0 rest in between each exercise and then once completed I give myself a minute or so rest, complete this 3-5 times and I am done for that day!
These workouts prove you don’t have to be in the gym for hours to get great results and burn shed loads of calories!
How do you keep your fitness knowledge up to date?
Im finishing off reading a book at the moment and I've got 2 more books to finish before the end of the year. Ive got 2 courses lined up for the year to, level 3 exercise on referral and level 4 diabetes and obesity course so busy, busy , busy.
What are your top 3 trainer tips?
- Follow a nutrition and exercise programme that works around your social, family and work life.
- Make small improvements every day and every week (no matter how small)
- Don’t beat yourself up if everything doesn't go to plan. Everybody has set backs with training and nutrition, don’t throw it all away if you have a bad day! Just give yourself a talking to, look where you went wrong and plan how you are going to put it right.
If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
If I could get away with it? Definitely pizza. Realistically though I love anything with protein in it, boring I know but I like to find new healthy protein snacks that I can mix into my flexible nutrition plan. Protein pancakes are my one of my favourites!
Why work with Sundried?
They are a great fitness brand that have a full range of clothing which works closely with charities and protecting the world with a low carbon footprint. I know my clients will love this clothing due to the quality and the fit so it's great that Sundried have chosen me as one of their ambassadors so my clients benefit from Sundried.
Favourite fitness quote:
“Nobody ever moved forward standing still.”
