I first started personal training with Jools in April 2013 when he introduced me to weight lifting. I wanted the help of a personal trainer as I was tired of spending hours on the treadmill on ridiculously low calories wondering why I still looked ‘soft’, unhealthy and always felt tired. Jools provided me with a great training programme which taught me the fundamentals of weight training and he taught me the principles of clean eating which included lots of great food – I was no longer constantly hungry and craving sugar!After a couple of months I began to take more of an interest in weight training and aspired to look like the strong muscular women I saw in fitness magazines. The more I looked into it, the more I was driven to train harder and eat cleaner towards my goal physique. Jools and I discussed taking my training to the next level – to compete in a figure competition. I decided to compete in the UKBFF Cumbrian Classic 2014 in the Bikini Category. Jools equipped me with a very specific diet and training plan which was tailored exactly to meet my needs. It was the hardest and most challenging 10 weeks I have ever had – both physically and mentally but the experience on stage was absolutely amazing, I loved every minute of it! I went on to take 2nd place in my very first competition and I also received an invite to the finals.I am now continuing training towards competing in the UKBFF Bikini Category Finals in October. I hope that my journey inspires other women to explore new ways of keeping fit to promote a positive body image of being strong not skinny!Jools is an absolutely fantastic personal trainer, I genuinely couldn’t recommend him enough. His knowledge and approach to nutrition and exercise is second to none. Jools not only supported me in one to one sessions, but he supported me throughout every step of my journey to the competition. Jools is the reason I developed a passion for bodybuilding and I can’t thank him enough!Thanks for everything Jools xx

Laura Powell

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