Monday, 27 June 2022
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27 June 2022
A COUPLE have opened a gym in Kidmore End, saying they want to help people with more than just their physical health.
Will and Daisy Bevis also offer mental health support to clients as they believe this will help them more than just exercise.
The couple, who live in Kennylands Road, Sonning Common, opened Will Bevis Coaching at Halla Farm in Chalkhouse Green last month.
Mr Bevis, 34, was already working as a personal trainer while his wife of two years is a hypnobirthing therapist who is now training to become a personal trainer, specialising in pre- and post-natal exercise.
He used to work in gyms but didn’t enjoy it and then took up marathon running and endurance events when he realised he still wanted to help other people.
Last summer, he took part in Race to the Stones, a 100km run along the Ridgeway from Lewknor to the historic stone circle at Avebury in Wiltshire. He was raising money for Me2Club, which helps children and young people with additional needs and disabilities to take part in mainstream leisure activities.
Mr Bevis said: “I started to help people around me train. I naturally enjoyed it and people seemed to enjoy training with me and I said to Daisy, ‘I don’t like my job anymore’. I don’t count myself as a personal trainer in a gym, I just want to help people. I don’t want people to think they have to eat ‘clean’ all the time or look a certain way — it’s about feeling good and being proud of each achievement.”
He made an appeal online for a premises for his own gym and heard from Mike Lincoln, who owns Halla Farm.
Mr Bevis said: “We just looked across the field and thought, ‘Oh God, this is what we’re looking for’,
“Then I spent a weekend frantically writing up a business plan and ensuring it would be something we could live off so we could do it full-time.
“We opened with the expectation of staying part-time for a few months but it has gone so well.”
Now his only other work is part-time one day a week at Tim Peers estate agents in Henley.
Mr Bevis, who trained as a personal trainer after struggling with his physical and mental health when he was younger, said he now wanted to help people such as mothers with young children.
He said: “It’s great if you’re 22 and can walk into a gym full of people and you can leave your life behind you but for a lot of people it’s impossible to do that. Here you can bring your life with you. We can be flexible, adaptable, we can make it work.”
The couple also hope to use their one-year-old rescue dog Skye in mental health sessions and will encourage their clients to contact them out of hours if they need help.
Mrs Bevis, 27, said: “We want to build a community with this rather than them feeling like they’ve been left on their own after the sessions. It’s more than just physical health.”
Her husband said: “It’s giving back. People invest good money to come here — we don’t charge more than the average personal trainer – so there’s no reason we shouldn’t give back to these clients.”
The couple paid for a client to run a 5km marathon, which was her goal during her personal training sessions. They paid for another woman to have a massage.
They have also agreed to display some photographs taken by a 15-year-old rugby player whose hobby is photography.
As well as the gym, they have created two vegetable and flower beds for a 16-year-old client.
For more information, visit www.willbeviscoaching.com
27 June 2022
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