New Veggie in London looking for Personal Trainer

Hi everyone!

My name's Paul and I've just made the switch to being Vegan

I have previously been a regular gym user (for around 10 years) and even won the title of "National Grand Champion" with Body for LIFE some years ago. In the last year however (for a number of reasons) I've kinda lost my "mojo" and neglected working out/eating clean.

I've been looking around for a Personal Trainer in the London area to help me kickstart an upswing and plan to begin a 12 week training program on Oct 1st to strip fat and build muscle tone & size (naturally)

I'd also like to mix-up my training a little & set certain challenges enroute to keep me motivated and focussed (e.g. charity run, boxing session, TRX etc)

I'm not planning on entering any bodybuilding competitions, FAME or the Miami Pro ... but who knows? I am curious to see just what kind of shape I can achieve.


Soooo... what I'd like from a PT is the following:


expert guidance on nutrition (I've switched to a predominantly vegetarian diet - no meat, dairy, caffeine or sugar) to assist in my getting outstanding results

advice on supplementation (protein, creatine, thermogenics, CLA, Omega 3,6,9s etc)

a varied program of resistance training (free weights, bodyweight, machines)

a varied program of cardio training (my pet hate and something of a mental block, given old injuries)


I work at London Bridge and have a flat at the Elephant & Castle that I stay at when in London... it has a pretty good "fitness suite" there (which I'd like to make best use of) which includes:


treadmill
recumbent bike
rowing machine
cross trainer
pull up / dip machine
lat pull down machine
leg press machine
chest press machine
shoulder press machine


Can anyone help?

Hi Paul,
I'm afraid I'm not in London, but I'll put the word around, you should find someone as we have a few people in London. You ought to take some 'pre-' pics before you get back into training, so you can follow your return to a fantastic physique.
Keep us up to date about how the training is going as you go along mate.
It's a shame you just missed the London Vegan Festival it would have been a great chance to meet a few like-minded people, a trainer & possibly even a few workout buddies all at the same time!

Hi Paul,
I've got one reply to your request for help. I believe this is a new gym called Bodyworks London replied this is their twitter address & this is their facebook. I don't know them personally, but they say that they have worked with vegetarians & although they have no experience with vegans would be happy to work with them on nutrition & dietary issues they may have.
As I said this appears to be a new venture, as they are just putting up social networking links (I suppose they might just be new to the internet).
If they are any good they will let you have a free, or at least very cheap intro session, give you an assessment (if they do not assess you then you probably aren't dealing with an experienced trainer), at the very least some variation of the FMS (functional movement screen) where you use 7 basic movements to figure out what works & what doesn't on a client check out "FMS scoring criteria (top download on this page) to see the kind of thing they should be doing with you as a new client - trust me these may seem like a waste of time, but really they do show a trainer potential issues & gives us an idea of what to do to fix them & make you a better functioning client. If you have an interest I do also recommend the book 'movement' available from the same page (or amazon) it's not quite as well indexed as I'd like, but it covers a LOT about the issues most trainees have, it's a great resource.
Give us an update if you use them, or find another veg-friendly trainer in your area as it's good to get some idea for when other people ask.