Stephen Byrne Personal Trainer

Stephen is a personal trainer and a keen cyclist. He talks to Sundried about training and motivation.

Please tell us about any sporting events you have taken part in or have coming up.

I have recently started Crit Racing. Having started at Cat 4 I have since been promoted to Cat 3 within 7 races, including 1 win and a 2nd place. I am regularly the ride lead for Dirty Wknd (a London-based cycling community) and I have just finished the London to Brighton charity ride as part of the ride safety team.

Tell us about your journey to fitness? Where did it all start?

I have also been into fitness through many routes including Football, TPI fitness for golf, general fitness through which I found the love for teaching people how to train.

What are your training goals now?

My goals have changed with my sporting goals through the years with now the main goal becoming fitter and faster on the bike to win more Crit races being the main goal, maybe trying hill climb season later in the year.

Tell us one unusual fact we wouldn’t know about you:

I have previously modelled for Peter Mark (hairdressers) when I had hair a few years back.

What advice do you wish you'd been given when you first started out?

Trust yourself and follow your interests fully.

Do you follow a specific nutrition plan? If so, what/when do you eat?

I eat quite a lot, being so active and such a cardio-heavy person. I eat very heavy carb diet, with a lot of pasta, rice and pizza. I eat multiple meals a day and being a cyclist I can eat close to and during activity.

What do you do to keep your clients motivated? Do you have any top tips to keep motivated?

Keep things simple. The more overly complicated you make things, the harder it is to stick to them.

Talk us through your training regime.

I have been slacking slightly myself the past few weeks, but i commute 25km+ a day on my bike, I race sometimes twice a week and ride 100km+ most weekends so I still have quite a lot of cardio-based activity. My training is heavily based on compound moves followed by a few isolation exercises and explosive power movements.

How do you keep your fitness knowledge up to date?

I'm always researching and doing courses. I love to learn; I talk with all the PTs in my gym and I watch how they train and if I don't understand an exercise or why they're doing it, I ask questions.

What are your top 3 trainer tips?

1. Simple goals
2. Train HARD
3. Rest

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Pizza.

What do you like about Sundried and what's your favourite bit of our kit?

My favourite bit of kit so far would be the men's cycling bib shorts, they are super comfortable and the leg grips on the bottom stick them in place perfectly which is a bugbear of mine.

Favourite fitness quote:

"You're lapping everyone on the couch."