Browse through our top categories or click here to see some from around the globe
Browse through our top locations or click here to see some from around the globe
Alfresco BBQ evening in the Deerhouse, Swinton Park, North Yorkshire. See your stag off in style with good food and a roaring fire in a restored hunting lodge. With views over the Yorkshire dales and your own private bar, the deerhouse, which can seat from 20 to 50 people, is a setting fit for kings. To find out about the packages that can be put together click here.
Alfresco BBQ evening in the Deerhouse, Swinton Park, North Yorkshire. See your stag off in style with good food and a roaring fire in a restored hunting lodge. With views over the Yorkshire dales and your own private bar, the deerhouse, which can seat from 20 to 50 people, is a setting fit for kings. To find out about the packages that can be put together click here.
Ok, I’m am getting into the idea… Imagine the possibilities – your body, a finely tuned machine of a thing – all toned and beautiful and ready for the summer…
Fight off the extra easter pounds with these Fit Box Boot Camps in London.
Scott Laidler and Victor Analuwa are two of London’s top personal trainers and they’ll be sure to put you through your fat-burning paces at these popular classes.
Classes take place all over London – currently running in Primrose Hill, Battersea Park, Wandsworth Park/Putney and Maida Vale. Classes last 45 minutes and are held 3 times a week for 4 weeks.
A skinny £99 for the four week course.
To find out more or book your place, click here.
Don’t forget, if you run courses, classes, workshops and events, you can list them on Ooh.com for free. Just register and start uploading your listing. It’s that easy!
I struggle to find many forms of physical exercise enjoyable or fulfilling , but since stumbling across Major Robin Cope, I think I may want to go to fitness training for the first time in my entire life. Often spotted in London’s parks, adorned with conspicuous coloured bibs, the clients of British Military Fitness are motivated and enthused by an all serving or ex-military team of highly qualified physical trainers.
So what inspired Cope to start BMF? “I set up British Military Fitness in 1999 to offer the public an alternative to lycra-clad aerobic classes which were then all the rage! I felt nothing was motivational and nothing really encouraged you. Bearing in mind I was in the army, I thought there was potential to get people to exercise outside with a military theme.”
Larger venue sessions can attract an average of 180 members at a time. What makes them so sought after? “Our sessions are great fun and also a chance to meet new people, which doesn’t always happen in a gym! We’ve had 13 marriages over the last 10 years from people meeting through our sessions. Our instructors guide individuals through the 60 minute classes ensuring that all exercises are performed safely while providing motivation and encouragement for the participants. The classes are an effective, varied way of training and promote group interaction through paired exercises and team activity.”
This emphasis on proper training outside, in a team, rather than indoors, alone is clearly a more socially fulfilling activity. Does the social aspect extend beyond the training session? “We run social events at each BMF venue which can range from drinks in the pub to days out paintballing etc. We also have an events department that runs 5Km & 10Km races, challenges to Borneo and social weekends away.”
So, it seems BMF is more fun than the gym, better for you, and better value. The best thing about British Military Fitness for Major Cope? “Knowing that the business we run is helping people to live active and healthy lifestyles.” If you can’t imagine the manager of your local chain gym saying that to you, maybe it’s worth checking out. Find out more about BMF and become a member at www.britmilfit.com.
Emma Farrell is at the forefront of an extraordinary sport: freediving. Involving underwater descent without breathing assistance, freediving can be both challenging and relaxing, and, perhaps surprisingly, it need not only be for the super-fit – “It’s more about relaxation than fitness. Some very fit people just can’t do it, whilst some very out of condition people take to it very easily. Saying that, it obviously does help if you are reasonably fit, as you can recover from deep dives quicker.”
Emma left a stressful career in the film industry to freedive upon learning of its availability in the UK. However, whilst there was a facility at which she could dive, there was no formal training organisation to maintain quality of training and safety.
“There wasn’t an organised and recognised education system and so a group of us in the UK got together to make a series of courses that could be taught. I was keen that people learn how to enjoy freediving safely to teach a generation how to do it properly and avoid dangerous diving. I was then one of the founding members of the AIDA Education Commission who took the course materials and expanded them worldwide.”
Having competed nationally and internationally between 2003 and 2006, coming 3rd in the 2003 UK Championships, 3rd in the 2006 Swiss Championships and 2nd in the 2004 Kalymnos International Championships despite being the only female in the competition, Emma’s passion lies in tuition – “Teaching is way more important to me than competing! I really struggled when I started freediving and I love being able to help people learn and avoid all the mistakes I made!”
As well as being a freediving author, and having chaired the British Freediving Association, Emma frequently appears in magazines and on television. Whilst she may be whisked to glamorous locations, the realities of these trips are sometimes a little different – “It may appear to be glamorous but beautiful images and locations can be deceiving! I did a photo shoot for my book in Monaco and got very badly stung by a jellyfish that scarred my hand for a few years. I also did a TV commercial where I was so cold that I became violently ill for a week! Teaching in the United Arab Emirates last year was about teaching in a sea of jellyfish and then an oil slick which took 3 hours in a shower with a bottle of detergent to get rid of. Saying that, I have done some beautiful dives in Greece and the UK when teaching courses so that helps to make up for it!”
Emma runs a variety of courses in the UK and offers freediving holidays at a summer school in Greece. For more information, visit www.emma-freediver.co.uk or www.deeperblue.com.
Photos used with the kind permission of Simon Reid.
We recently tracked down a two-wheeled supremo, Rob Penn. Rob’s fairly unique in that he’s a man who’s ridden a bike for most days of his adult life. We all dream of seeking adventure, but Rob actually did something about it. In his late twenties, he threw in his job as a lawyer and set off to cycle round the world: it took him three years, covering 24,000 miles and 30 countries.
Nowadays Rob lives in the Black Mountains and believes the finest road cycling in Britain is in the Brecon Beacons National Park, which is why he’s started a business offering road cycling training weekends. The weekends are designed for fairly serious wheelers – those who are in training for major cyclosportive events like the Etape du Tour, the Marmotte or one of the Gran Fondos in Italy, and have an urgent need to get some serious hill-climbing into their legs.
Rob’s ethos is: ride hard, eat well and sleep deeply. We went to meet him and were struck by how passionate he is about cycling; even after so many miles under his belt. When Rob imparts a piece of cycling wisdom, one takes it seriously: he learned his craft the hard way, alone, over three years and in the ten years since his return from his world trip. We love the fact that anyone can tap into his great resource of knowledge in such beautiful surroundings and convivial company for only a few hundred dollars.
A couple of days with Rob will be tough, exhilarating, stimulating and will prepare folk for the biggest ride of their lives. For more info, email info@uketapetraining.co.uk.
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