Welcome to Gymbo's

Over the past 2 years, Katie has been dedicated to her weight loss journey. Through consistent effort, hard work, unwavering support, determination, and enjoyment, she has successfully reached her weight target, shedding an incredible 29kg along the way!

Right from the outset, Katie has demonstrated remarkable consistency, never missing a single session and consistently giving her all. Her positive attitude and welcoming demeanor make her a joy to work with, and she extends friendliness to everyone she encounters.

Katie thrives on learning new exercises, such as ½ Turkish get-ups and balance exercises, and takes immense satisfaction in her weekly progress, whether it's achieving more reps within a certain time frame or improving her performance on the rower.

Her progress in strength and mobility is truly impressive. From mastering squats with body weight to confidently performing goblet squats with a 12kg weight, and improving her balance to the point of maintaining it for 10 seconds on each leg, Katie has made significant strides.

In addition to physical achievements, Katie has also experienced a boost in confidence, overcoming challenges such as efficiently navigating stairs, which had previously impacted her confidence due to a past fall.

During the lockdown period, we seamlessly transitioned to online training sessions via video calls, ensuring Katie's progress continued. She embraced these sessions and even created her own workouts inspired by her training sessions.

Regular daily walks became a staple in Katie's routine, providing structure to her days and helping her manage snack cravings effectively.

Upon her birthday, Katie received an 8kg kettlebell as a gift, which she now uses for her online workouts at home.

Katie's journey reflects not only her physical transformation but also the profound sense of achievement, belief, and pride she has gained. She serves as an inspiration to us all and makes us proud with her dedication and progress.

Expressing gratitude for the support from her friends and family, especially her mother, Katie acknowledges the role they've played in her journey.

We eagerly anticipate witnessing Katie's continued progress in strength now that she has achieved her weight goal.

- Katie - Fat Loss & Mobility

Claire came to us to make a healthy lifestyle change, to lose weight and to tone up, in a sustainable way. Claire has worked incredibly hard on her diet and this, coupled with pushing herself in our personal training sessions has reached her ideal weight goal.

We tailored Claire's sessions to her personal goals focusing mainly on resistance training which Claire really enjoys. We have seen a big improvement in her overall strength, muscle definition and fat loss and I am sure you will agree that she looks amazing!

Claire's results:
Before
Weight: 69.8kg (10st13) | Body fat: 45.6% | Muscle mass: 35.1kg
Waist: 36 inches Hips: 39.5 inches R arm: 13 inches R leg: 23.5 inches

After*
Weight: 52kg (8st2lb) | Body fat: 22.8% | Muscle mass: 41.2kg
Waist: 27.5 inches Hips: 31 inches R arm: 10.5 inches R leg: 19 inches

Membership: 1 x One to One Per Week

*Results may vary from person to person

- Claire - Fat Loss

One to One PT Membership - (1 Session Per Week)

Daisy approached us just over a year ago in March 2018. She had already started her weight loss journey and had lost a significant amount of weight but she had hit a plateau - a very common problem with body transformation journeys.

Her goal was to lose another 2 stone (14kgs) before an upcoming trip to Australia, but at the time she was severely lacking motivation and didn’t think she would be able to lose anymore weight. However, after our initial consultation and analysing of her food and training diary, we were confident we would be able to help her.

We started off strong and in the first 3 months Daisy had dropped over 7kgs (over 1 stone) of body fat. Daisy was doing brilliantly but after a few more weeks she felt like she was once again running into a wall. Daisy always struggled with emotional eating but her trainer reassured her that we were always here for her and they had many chats during her weaker moments.

One such time sticks out in her trainers mind. Daisy texted him on a Sunday, as she felt like she had let herself down with her diet and just felt like giving up for the day and eating anything she could get her hands on. His response was the same that he says to himself in these situations: “If you get a flat tyre on your car, you don’t look and say - well I’ve got one flat tyre, I may as well just stab the other 3! You get out your spare tyre, put it on the car and carry on with your journey. The same is true with a weight loss journey!" I think this resonated with her and she was reassured that we all have moments of weakness but that doesn’t mean we will never reach our goals.

Along with Daisy’s impressive initial weight loss she was getting much stronger in the gym - something we encourage all our clients to do. We believe it helps massively during a weight loss transformation: both mentally with confidence and physically with muscle maintenance/growth. Daisy had never deadlifted before joining us, so we started with just 30 kg on the bar; however her most successful deadlift to date is a very impressive 110kg! This huge achievement proved how far she has come in terms of her physical and mental strength.

So now at the time of writing this, over a year has passed since we began our journey together and looking at her results stirs up incredibly proud emotions for us and her trainer. Daisy has lost a total of 17 kg of weight whilst maintaining all of her muscle mass, which means her body fat percent has dropped from 30% (this would be classified as overweight) to 14.8% (which would be classified as athletically lean!). These are incredibly impressive results by any standard.

Furthermore, Daisy has grown so much as an individual - she is far more capable and far more confident in every way. It has been such a pleasure to have been a part of her journey up to this point, but we aren’t done yet - Daisy has a drive to achieve more and more which is inspiring even to her trainer! We have every confidence Daisy will continue to smash goals and push for more and more in all areas of her life and we are looking forward to continuing to be a part of that journey!

- Daisy - Rapid Fat Loss

Gym Membership

Scott joined Gymbo’s 13 months ago to improve his strength and overall conditioning, having had a long time away from the gym due to the demands of being a first-time father. Once he had got back into the swing of exercising and re-built a decent level of fitness, his focus shifted more towards the desire to reduce the level of body fat he had accumulated during his time away from exercising. As a gym member, Scott took the opportunity to ask for regular advice from our knowledgeable, friendly and helpful staff on duty for the most effective ways of achieving his fat loss goals – something he had struggled with alone. At 14.9% bodyfat, he already had a pretty good level as a starting point, but he was on a quest to achieve the elusive and very difficult to achieve single digit bodyfat percentage in order to be as lean and chiselled as possible!

Our staff at Gymbos helped Scott with ideas for his nutrition plan and guided him towards the types of training he should be doing to maximise the effectiveness of his time in the gym, in order to give him the best chance of reaching his fat loss goal. To his credit, he not only asked for advice and took the time to listen - he also did the one thing too many people fail to do – he put the advice into action!

Scott frequented the gym during most of his lunch breaks, only for 40 minutes or so at a time, which gave him the perfect opportunity to experience a change of scenery and to get away from the temptation of eating lunch at his desk while continuing to work! Scott followed an interval training programme, which consisted of using our Cybex trainer and also a multitude of resistance exercises, taking advantage of our effective equipment.

As a result from his dedication and consistency, Scott has lowered his fat percentage from 14.9% to 8.9% whilst ramping up his strength and fitness levels. This is a fantastic achievement. The best bit is he feels it is now part of his weekly routine and is therefore sustainable for the long term. In 13 months Scott has transformed himself from an exhausted, unfit and slightly overweight new dad to a strong & lean machine full of energy - ready to cope with the challenges of juggling a career with fatherhood.

Excellent job Scott!

- Scott - Rapid Fat Loss, Improved Strength & Fitness

Mary came to Gymbos with the goal of losing weight and to get fitter. She had slowly been gaining weight over the last few years and wanted motivation and a clear plan to help her lose this weight and make a lifestyle change to remain healthy for the rest of her life.

Her goal was to lose weight steadily and ensure that it stays off. We focused on coupling intensive PT sessions with a nutrition programme and the hard work has paid off! Mary has taken advantage of a number of the services offered at Gymbos's and partner businesses, participating in group personal training sessions as well as pilates classes which have all added to her new active lifestyle.

Mary's results:
Before: - Weight: 86.7kg (13st 9.2lbs) | BMI: 31.4
Circumference measurements: Waist: 44.5 inches Hips: 47.5 inches R Arm: 11 inches R Leg: 24.5 inches

After:* - Weight: 71.1kg (11st 2lbs) | BMI: 25.8
Circumference measurements: Waist: 36.5 inches Hips: 41 inches R arm: 10 inches R leg: 21 inches

Membership: 1 x One to One Per Week

*Results vary from person to person.

- Mary - Fat Loss

Ryan came to us with a clear goal and short deadline. In 8 weeks' time he was due to enter the Forces. Our mission was to get him in the best shape possible so that he had an advantage over the other cadets. Before he came to us, Ryan worked out regularly but was not getting much in the way of results and he could never manage to lose the last bit of stubborn body fat he had deposited around his belly button and lower chest.

We focused on dietary changes in addition to high intensity training to ramp up his fitness, endurance & strength; and despite not being his main focus, he lost body fat & increased muscle definition.

Key Statistics: Timeframe: 8 Weeks Body Fat % Reduction: 5.4%*

Membership: 2 x One to One Per Week

*Results differ from person to person

- Ryan - Fat Loss & Improved Fitness

Jane had struggled with her weight since she was a child. With the attitude of 'it is never too late to be what you could have been', she came to us for help. Jane joined our small group sessions and quickly became hooked! In combination with our dietary advice, in just 90 days she has made fantastic progress for someone who had tried everything else to no prevail.

'For the first time in years, I found my ribs! Also wore a dress on Saturday that I haven't got into for about 1 year or so. I have just bought some new exercise trousers as I am fed up with pulling the old ones up!' Jane Hampshire

We are still working with Jane but here are details of her progress so far in a 90 day period:

Before - 12st 2.5lbs | 45.2% Bodyfat

After* - 10st 11.2lbs | 40.8% Bodyfat

Membership: 2 x Small Group Sessions Per Week

*Results vary from person to person

- Jane - Fat Loss

One to One PT Membership - (1 Session Per Week)

Megan was an avid attendee at Gymbo's (attending both the gym and group sessions 4+ times per week) and as a result benefited from steady improvements in her strength and fitness. However, she felt she needed some extra support to help her change her body shape and so started working with us for one PT session per week.

Megan was slightly unique in the fact that she had a very good base understanding of training and was already exercising multiple times each week. Often with new untrained clients the simple introduction of exercise activity will spur on the first batch of results, but with Megan we knew this would not be the case - we were going to have to dig deeper and look very closely at all aspects of her training and nutrition if we were going to get the results she desired. We put Megan straight to work with a food diary via an interactive tracking app. We also created an A+B training program that gave Megan more specific structure than relying on group sessions alone.

We gave Megan a specific calorie goal along with macronutrient goals unique to her requirements, which were always met. Megan rarely missed a day tracking and was incredibly diligent with her food selection.

She also responded very well to our bespoke resistance training program; in just 6 weeks we had achieved nearly 3kg's of body fat lost and 1kg of muscle gained! We focused on building strength in the key lifts with a dusting of HIIT and isolation exercises to work on some of her focus body parts. It wasn't all plain sailing however, a back injury meant she could not resistance train for 3 weeks - this could have been curtains for her journey...but we said to her what we say to all clients who suffer a setback "use it as an opportunity to focus even more on the areas that you can still control". We encouraged Megan to turn up the wick even more with her diet and focus on cardio and stretching in the gym.

Fast forward to now and she is back to personal best lifts and she has smashed her weight loss goal 2 weeks early losing 9.6kg's of bodyfat whilst gaining 2kgs of muscle! Now that she has surpassed her weight loss goals we have decided to re-focus our attention on to maintaining her new lean physique whilst gradually increasing food intake and smashing a few performance based gym goals. We can’t wait to see what she is capable of during this next chapter!

These incredible results demonstrate that although it is important to exercise regularly, quality is more important than quantity and that even if you are a seasoned gym goer like Megan, working with an experienced team of personal trainers can still help take you to that next level and beyond!

- Megan - Rapid Fat Loss & Muscle Gain

- Shona - Semi-Private PT (Sawston)

- Sarah - Semi-Private PT (Sawston)

- Caherine - Improved Strength & Fitness

- Jo - Improved Mental Wellbeing, Strength & Fitness

Platinum Semi Private PT Member (3 sessions per week)

Alun was one of our 1st semi PT clients at Gymbo’s Sawston, having signed up during our open day. During our initial consultation, our trainer and Alun instantly got on well due to their mutual love of rugby and they have continued to enjoy each other’s company during sessions ever since.

Alun came to us with a long history of knee problems and wanted help with a regime that could either train around the problem, or even better, address the underlying issues as to why he kept picking up the same injury.

Within a few weeks of working with us, Alun experienced the usual knee injury. Obviously, this was frustrating for Alun as he was making good progress and gaining back some mobility. We adjusted his program so that we could focus on other areas such as upper body and core strength while his knee recovered. When it did, we shifted the focus of his program to knee stability and strength, including prescribing him a variation of a rear lunge with the valslide using a metal stick for support and balance, which Alun called his ‘Gandalf Stick’. This worked really well. He gradually made progress and gained much more strength and mobility over the coming months.

Then one day refereeing, he suffered a reoccurrence of his knee injury. For Alun, it must have felt like one step forward, two steps back. But if anything, we feel that this has made Alun more determined to ensure he makes time for his health and fitness, rather then let it beat him down and give up. We love that no matter what, he is always smiling and having a laugh. We continued to work on knee stability and strength and fast forward 6 months, with our help his knee has been completely pain and injury free.

With regard to Alun’s bespoke exercise programs, we juggle knee rehab with general conditioning exercises so that he can make improvements in other areas such as strength and fitness. Often, Alun’s programme needs to be adjusted slightly to add in more mobility, especially around the hips and ankles. We taught him a squat variation that also stretched out his upper back, and it was great to see him progress so that he could eventually get his backside right to the floor whereas before he struggled to get below his knees.

Now that his knee is less of a problem, we are focusing more on cardiovascular strength and muscular endurance by including giant sets of 4-5 resistance exercises one after the other, working the whole body to get the maximum calorie burn to help stimulate the metabolism for fat loss. As a result, we are now taking his strength and fitness to the next level!

We think Alun’s commitment is inspirational! On top of being busy with work, traveling to different countries, being a busy father and refereeing at weekends, he still manages to make time for physio appointments, masseuse appointments, multiple semi PT sessions and yoga sessions. For those of you reading this thinking ‘I am not sure whether I have enough time to start my fitness journey’… think again!

Overall, Alun is a pleasure to train as he’s always willing to give everything a go with a big smile on his face! 😊

- Alun - Knee Rehab & Improved General Mobility

One to One PT Membership - (1 Session Per Week)

Lizzie joined Gymbo’s in October 2017. Her main goal was to improve her fitness and general health and to use exercise to help decrease her stress levels.

Lizzie is naturally self-motivated, having run 4 marathons in the past 9 years. This motivation and eagerness to achieve her goals makes our life as her Personal Trainer a breeze. She constantly wants to improve, so we are able to push her that little bit further and introduce her to different styles of training than she is used to.

We started with a full body strengthening HIIT programme, incorporating elements of Pilates to really target her core. Over the weeks we increased the intensity of the programme but also had to adapt on certain weeks depending on Lizzie’s energy levels. Having a stressful job as well as doing a PhD means Lizzie has very long and busy days, and as a result sometimes has poor sleep. Despite this, Lizzie always wants to give 100% to all her sessions!

As sessions have progressed we changed the programme to give more variety and incorporated more short term goals - such as preparing for Lizzie’s skiing holiday. For this we did more dynamic leg strengthening and core/balance work.

Although Lizzie did not come to us to change her body shape, she has gained 2kg of muscle mass and has decreased her waist measurement by 3 inches. In addition to this, she has reduced her blood pressure and due to her improved fitness levels, her resting heart rate has decreased also, meaning her heart health has improved.

Lizzie is a great client to work with as she always gives everything she can to all the programmes we give her. She makes the most of every session and has the motivation to keep up her fitness outside of her sessions at Gymbo’s. She implements healthy eating and is really benefiting from leading a fit and healthy life. It is great to see Lizzie’s love of exercise grow and to see how it benefits both her physical and mental health.

- Lizzie - Improved Fitness & Mental Wellbeing

One to One PT Membership - (1 Session Per Week)

Gary joined us having had a long time off exercising due to quite a serious spinal problem and a couple of other medical conditions. He wanted to enlist our help to get him fit again with minimal risk of further injury.

We got to work with putting Gary through a fitness assessment suitable for his level, and during this it became apparent to Gary just how much potential for movement he had lost over the years and how his body just seemed to be fighting against him during even the most simple of movement patters. His assessment results highlighted a need to overhaul pretty much everything, but specifically working on improving his ability to move efficiently before we even considered anything else.

After some in-depth consideration of his medical conditions and assessment results, we carefully constructed a bespoke program that avoided the movements which would aggravate his condition. We focused heavily on building a solid core foundation to help support his back and improve his posture, along with some exercises which promoted plenty of movement to help with mobility -particularly in the hips and spine.

The first session of this program focused on teaching him the 5 basic principles of STOTT Pilates so that he had a better awareness of his body and how to align his spine and pelvis to enable him to recruit his weak core muscles. We then got to work applying these principles to the resistance exercises in his gym sessions.

After the first 6 week program, Gary benefitted from much more mobility and his fitness tests results improved dramatically in just a short period. Due to his improved mobility and core strength, we were able to push on with a new program focusing more on conditioning (general strength and fitness). It was during this phase that Gary really started to notice the benefits.

When he first started, Gary was initially a little unsure whether personal training had enough value to warrant considering it a long term option. However, as soon as he felt the improvements to his fitness and strength, posture and the way his body moved -, he was a convert! We soon had discussions about the possibility of upping to a second session per week and after his initial personal training membership expired, he signed up for a further 12 months. He particularly found personal training beneficial due to the fact that it was a pre-arranged appointment - same time, same day, each week - which encouraged him to keep it up and not let life get in the way. As a result, Gary has been very consistent with attending his sessions and has reaped the rewards. We always enjoy having Gary at the studio. Although during our recent time together he has had one or two frustrating personal issues to contend with, (you can see the frustration in his face when he first arrives!), the session allows him to relax, forget about the day-to-day stresses of life and focus on some time for himself. We soon find ourselves laughing and having a good chinwag in between sets!

We cannot fault the effort he puts in to each session and his technique has come on leaps and bounds. It is a pleasure training someone who appreciates the importance of good form and listens carefully to our advice.As a result, his recent fitness assessment results shown below speak for themselves:

(Achieved in a 5 month period)

Hold Ski Sit for as long as possible: 155% increase in duration (leg endurance test)

Dumbbell bench press for maximum reps: 50% increase in weight lifted (chest & arm strength)

Dumbbell Single Arm Row: 40% increase in weight lifted (back & arm strength)

Hold Plank for as long as possible: 113% increase in duration (core strength)

- Gary - Improved Mobility, Strength & Fitness

One to One PT Membership (1 Session Per Week)

We first started working with Becky not long after Gymbo’s first opened in 2007, and continue to do so more than 10 years later. She came to us with fairly general goals of improving fitness and body composition, which we achieved using a variety of resistance exercises - typically in a circuit format.

Over the 10 years, as her goals evolved, we adapted her programs to suit; including helping her prepare for hiking holidays such as the Inca Trail. Leading up to these events we would research into what the event entailed, the movement patterns involved, and the muscles/type of muscle fibre recruited during the activity. We would then design her next program to prepare her body to be able to cope with the exact demands of the event.

After working together for several months, we identified that some postural problems (especially the inflexibility in Becky’s upper back) were both limiting her ability to perform exercises properly in the gym and also causing pain in her day-to-day life. Even simple things such as sitting up at the dinner table were uncomfortable for Becky, due to the weakness and tightness in her back. We attacked this problem as pragmatically as possible, first improving Becky’s ability to feel both a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ position for the spine. Then, once she achieved this increase in proprioception, we introduced exercises that would both force Becky to extend her upper back, while simultaneously strengthening it.

Through these simple improvements, Becky has improved both her quality of life outside of the gym (now not experiencing pain whilst doing simple things such as sitting) as well as her quality of movement inside the gym (squats, hip hinges, lunges etc are all now done with perfect posture), making the movements safer and making her more powerful as an athlete.

It’s not been an easy road, as these types of improvements (both neuromuscular and physiological) take a great number of hours to ingrain into movement patterns. However, through this journey, Becky has become very in tune with her movements and is now very adept at making seemingly small changes to exercise technique, which make a big difference. Through consistency, diligence and focus, Becky and her trainer have managed to make some real changes to her wellbeing through physical training, and it has been very rewarding seeing how our work together has made a real impact to the quality of her life.

- Becky - Better Posture & Improved Back Health

Platinum Semi Private PT Member (3 Sessions Per Week)

Jo came to us wanting help with weight loss and to improve her strength and cardiovascular fitness.

During our initial consultation we discussed her goals and what was important to her, and soon learnt that her biggest motivating factor was that as her children grew older and more energetic, she found herself struggling to keep up with them during outdoor activities. We used this revelation to help Jo form a more specific goal of improving her endurance levels in preparation for a ski holiday in a year’s time so that she could keep up with her children.

At the start, Jo was very deconditioned and found exercises just involving her own bodyweight very challenging. With hard work and a little Gymbo’s magic, Jo experienced great improvements to her overall condition and in no time she found herself able to perform more advanced movements with good form and technique.

Eight months in to her training, there was a little set back - Jo hurt her knee out walking one day. Rather than use this as an excuse to take some time out (which more often than not leads to giving up altogether!), Jo was keen to find out what she could continue to do. Having assessed the extent of the injury, we re-evaluated her program and made some amendments so the programme could be managed without causing her further discomfort or injury. Once the knee had healed, we soon moved her back on to the full programme, and due to her never waning determination she very quickly caught up and was back training harder than ever.

One of Jo’s greatest achievements in the gym was achieved recently - performing an assisted pull up. To some this might not seem like much but for Jo, gaining the ability to pull your bodyweight entirely off the floor with perfect form was incredibly satisfying and provided tangible evidence of her improvements in strength (it helped that she is now over a stone lighter too!).

Jo’s determination and thirst for her goals has been very impressive, consistently coming 4-6times a week and she still has a smile on her face at 06:30am in the morning! Jo did not start out as a regular gym bunny, so her conversion from gym avoider to avid gym goer in just twelve months is testament to our motivating trainers and our fun and engaging exercise programs. Amazing work Jo 😊.

‘My skiing was so much better this year and as result much more enjoyable. The kids were really excited that I could do more with them this year too and said it was the best skiing holiday yet.'

- Jo - Fat Loss, Improved Strength & Fitness

One to One PT Membership - (1 Session Per Week)

When Linda came back to training with us, her goal was to become fitter, healthier, and pain free. Linda had been suffering with multiple injuries at the start of her training. She had a neck/shoulder issue that became very painful after she exercised. On top of this, Linda had an injury in her foot that would also leave her in pain after exercising. She found it difficult to keep fit and active without aggravating, and possibly worsening her injuries.

We adopted a cautious approach towards Linda’s training at first. She began to make progress in strength, mobility and cardiovascular fitness. After several weeks we had figured out what aggravated her foot issue and how to avoid causing foot pain. This made exercise much more enjoyable for her. Linda was focusing on lower body and core strength while avoiding direct upper body work. Eventually, Linda’s neck and shoulder started to bother her again. It became clear that simply holding weights would aggravate her injury. We decided to redesign Linda’s program to include only bodyweight exercises until her neck and shoulder settled back down. Then we slowly reintroduced her to some TRX leg exercises.

Linda has made great progress in strength, mobility, and her cardiovascular fitness throughout her time training with us. Despite having to change her training programs quite often, we have still seen a steady and impressive increase in her fitness. Linda’s core strength was originally one of her weaknesses, so she worked incredibly hard to improve it. Now, Linda can do advanced core exercises with ease. Linda’s cardiovascular fitness was improved with a mixture of interval based cardiovascular training, resistance-based circuit training, and steady state cardiovascular training. Originally, Linda would be given long rests between exercises. Now she is fit enough to work at a very high intensity for the full session.

Despite being faced with many injuries and reasons not to exercise, Linda always shows up for her sessions ready to work hard. She continues to push herself to new levels of fitness. One-on-one personal training gives us the opportunity to find out exactly what movements cause pain and which don’t. It allows us to tailor Linda’s training exactly for her. Most importantly, it has saved Linda time and frustration by providing her with the guidance she needed to overcome her injuries.

- Linda - Improved Mobility & Posture