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With over 15 years in the industry, Mark is a very experienced Fitness Professional. A former Physical Training Instructor in the Parachute Regiment, he has lifetime a passion for sport and fitness training. Since leaving the Paras in 1985, he has helped set up a computerised fitness assessment facility and run corporate fitness courses, writing the syllabus's himself.
Having obtained an Honours Degree in Physical Education, majoring in Exercise Physiology, Health Related Fitness and Athletics, he now runs The Fitness Link Physical Training Consultancy, based in Southampton, England.
He offers advice on many aspects of Physical Training from setting up a Health Club, to organising Corporate Fitness Courses and carrying out Personal Training. Over the years Mark has developed a unique philosophy towards fitness training and training for sport.
"The Fitness Links approach to training is based around intrinsically motivating people to exercise. An individualised approach to training will achieve this by providing the greatest opportunity for individuals to adhere to an exercise programme.
Many people stop exercising when environmental circumstances make it more difficult. By encouraging people to participate in physical activity for its own sake and not for external rewards, we hope to offset this. Training should be enjoyable and rewarding in its own right. This can be achieved through a combination of individually tailored training programmes, goal setting and education.
My aim is to promote healthy active lifestyles through fitness training and sport."
He also has strong views on other matters which concern the Sport and Leisure Industry.
"I would not hesitate to expose any form of cheating and malpractice within the Sport and Leisure Industry. This can range from high profile steroid abuse, to an act as subtle as using other, perhaps less talented person(s), to further your own ends or those of someone in your charge."
"In the not too distant future I feel that Sports Centres and Health Clubs will by law have to provide specialist weight training facilities for disabled people to use along side able bodied trainers. This special equipment is now available to the Leisure Industry so we must wait to see how many new and existing facilities take it on board."
These topics and many more will be dealt with in depth by Mark at a later date as he takes on sports and leisure for The New Millennium magazine...