About Me

Your Private Personal Trainer In London

Hi, I’m Kerry.

As I approach 20 years in the health & fitness industry, I’ve found it’s true that proper wellbeing is not simply about absence of illness or disease. It’s a combination of someone’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social health factors.

That’s the starting point for all my collaborations with clients.

Why do I do this work? Because I’m not so different from you; just a bit further along the same path.

Kerry - Private personal trainer in London

I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t out-train stress, overwhelm or a fried nervous system.

If your body is working overtime in the background (you feel constantly “on” even when you’re trying to rest) it limits your energy, motivation and consistency long before willpower gets a vote.

Most people have no idea this is happening, which is why their fitness attempts don’t stick.

My coaching helps you build the nervous-system capacity that makes change possible and sustainable.

As we train, we also settle the system that drives everything in the background.

And once that happens your strength, confidence and momentum come back online — that’s when the fun really begins.

How it started…

The age of 23 was my own pivot point.

Prior to that my fitness had followed the common curve of teenage sports -> university life -> pints of snakebite & black and kebabs -> arriving at working life in sub-optimal shape.

Two things then happened in quick succession. Firstly my girlfriend dumped me, feeling she came second to our local all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.

Secondly an office colleague snorted when, mouth full of Cornish pasty, I said I was interested in training with him for the Copenhagen marathon later that year.

Six months later I toed the start line. I had supports on both knees, I reeked of Deep Heat and my remaining toenails numbered seven – but I finished the race and haven’t stopped running since.

In fact running became my gateway drug into learning more about the human body, and following this instinct led me into fitness journalism.

I had a glorious time interviewing athletes, sporting superstars, Hollywood A-listers, low-key local community heroes, nutty ultra-endurance athletes and - my favourite - athletic senior citizens who were rewriting the rule book on what is considered not only possible but desirable for people in later life.

I’ve also been an enthusiastic guinea pig: halving my body fat for a challenge; bulking up for boxing matches; reviewing all manner of new gyms, fitness classes, nutritional protocols and diet programmes; training in new sports; testing gadgets; exercising in weather chambers and being subjected to batteries of tests in laboratory settings.

The more athletes and coaches I worked with, the clearer it became: results don’t come from temporary bursts of dedication. They come from prosaic consistency allied to a strong sense of ‘why’, and a true understanding how you uniquely work. Most people follow the same 80% of principles, but the remaining 20% - physiology, psychology, stress, inherited beliefs, life - is what actually makes or breaks progress.
That realisation is what pulled me into personal training. I wanted to help people who wanted to improve their health but had never got more than halfway up the Fitness Snakes & Ladders board. Helping people figure out their 20% gives me a bigger buzz than journalism ever did.

A few personal lifestyle accomplishments...

I’ve completed 48 marathons across six out of the seven continents
(Antarctica I’m coming for you).
I’ve run 120 miles in six days at altitudes of up to 4000m across the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains.
I was the only journalist ever to race Usain Bolt over 100m. In the national athletic stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. (Bolt won, in case you were interested.)
I once ran 12 marathons in 12 days for charity, starting at Harrogate war memorial in North Yorkshire, and finishing in London outside Buckingham Palace.
As a journalist I watched and trained with some of the biggest names in athletics such as Mo Farah, Kelly Holmes, Paula Radcliffe, Shelley-Ann Fraser, Alyson Felix and many more.
I’ve completed a five-kilometre open water swim between the Caribbean islands of Nevis and St Kitts.
I once won a press-up competition against double Olympic 10,000m gold medallist and former marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie!
One thousand years ago I was on the cover of Men’s Health magazine.

But here’s the bigger factor that I firmly believe makes me the right Personal Trainer for you:

I’m older. With that comes real, lived experience; empathy; communication skills; wisdom…and a sense of humour.

(These things might not sound sexy - but each is vital to the process of upgrading your health and bringing back your zip!)

Because improving your health and fitness is simple – but it’s not easy.

I’ve experienced weight gain, weight loss, career changes, hormonal shifts, sleep issues, chronic stress and many of the other challenges that we face as we pass through the first flush of life and into our 40s and beyond.

I know how easy it is for us to lose ourselves in all this, and lose focus on our own wellbeing.

I can help you (re)discover the version of you that you know is in there. And we’ll absolutely have fun while we’re doing it!

Let's work together

Kerry - personal trainer in South West London