Logging on to your own personal fitness regime

Feb 4 2010 by Chris Knox, The Journal

A FORMER Army training instructor is flexing his muscles in the world of online fitness and has launched a website which he believes will help create jobs and achieve sales of more than £1m in three years time.

County Durham-based Phil Crosby launched earlier this year after seeing that there was a lack of sites that monitored all aspects of health and fitness, from healthy eating to muscle development.

The website allows subscribers to track their daily food intake and download specially created fitness programmes or upload their own regimes.

Users can then monitor their progress through weight and measurement trackers, including easy to read graphs and charts.

Mr Crosby, who is originally from Essex, spent 10 years as a physical training instructor in the Army before moving to the North East three years ago to launch a career as a personal trainer.

However, he now believes the future of personal training is online and expects to grow his members from 500 to more than 4,000 by the end of the year, as well as employ additional web developers to support the growth of the business.

The entrepreneur has already secured a six-figure investment from a local business angel, which will be used to create a 10-strong sales and development team by 2013 as well as help to achieve a seven-figure turnover.

The 30-year-old, who received a grant from Business Link to help create the site and employ his first web developer, plans to move the business out of his rural home in Rookhope over the next three years and is currently looking at sites in Newcastle.

He decided to move into online training when he found it difficult to keep track of his clients’ progress once they moved out of the North East.

Mr Crosby, who has been developing the website over the last 18 months, said: “It all started when one of my clients was moving to Cyprus.

“He asked me to recommend a web tool where I could upload training programmes for him and he could input his progress. As a busy man he needed something really quick and straightforward to use.

“The more I researched it, the more I realised there was a huge gap in the market for a comprehensive online personal organiser that encompasses both health and fitness needs.”

He now hopes to attract users in mainland Europe, where he said there were a lack of similar websites, and will soon begin talks with Sunderland Software City to develop the site for use on mobile technology such as the iPhone.

He is also using some of the investment to market the business following its official launch at The Diet & Fitness Show at London’s Olympia earlier this month.

The visit also saw a team of blue ‘iexerci.se Men’ jog across the capital to help promote the business to passers by.

Although last year saw the launch of a wide range of training software, particularly within the home games console market, Mr Crosby is confident that his site will still prove popular among fitness fanatics.

“Programmes such as those launched on the Wii certainly have their place, and can help a lot of people back into fitness,” he said.

“However, there are certain elements that are not covered such as flexibility and resistance training, which are important to overall fitness.

“Also, the website is not a replacement for the traditional personal training, but is a tool which they can use to ensure that their clients are on track.

“Although, there are only two of us at the moment, we expect to be able to create a number of jobs as the website grows in popularity.”