My interest in things fitness related began in 1973 at the age of sixteen when I started to learn Wado Ryu Karate and also began weight training; I trained pretty much every day and passed my 1st Dan in Wado Ryu after three years of training, I was also asked to open a club and start teaching by my Instructor at the time. I continued to train in karate but in 1980 started to study the Shotokan style and took my 1st Dan in 1984, the last grading I took was in 2002 when I passed 5th Dan in Shotokan. In the mean time I had travelled to Japan in 1991 and trained two to three times a day for six weeks at the two main Shotokan Karate Dojo in Tokyo.
On my return at the end of 1991 I was introduced to Jim Jarman who owned the then Body Studio in Grimsb , I was a bit skint so he kindly paid for my exercise to music course and I worked some hours in the gym to repay him, I passed my ETA in 1993 and started teaching aerobics and soon after step and from then on pretty much everything that came along, Jim used to send me to sample and learn the new fitness trends and then we would bring it back and start to teach it in the club including Body Pump 1998 and Body Combat 2000, I also completed a two year fitness and sports therapy course 1996/98, I had been studying yoga for a while by this time, began teaching Pilates in 2001 and attended my first yoga teacher training course with david Swenson in 2003 which was held in Edinburgh and contiued to study with various teachers along the way, I then completed a month long teacher training in yoga in India in 2008 with Michael gannon and I try to travel back to India for a month each year for self practice and to gain more knowledge from various teachers there. I teach at various venues around Grimsby and Caistor and have recently opened a small yoga shala in Louth, I teach various styles of yoga from restorative to ashtanga
Namaste
Roger
