In October last year (2014) I came to Jose to try and regain some of my fitness I had whilst playing Rugby Union just out of school. I knew he ran an off season training camp which I had participated in before but had not had much success, due to my poor motivation. However, this time round, I was more motivated than ever, so I spoke to Jose about my wish to undertake his new program in order to regain a former fitness.

I set out with a goal to get back under 90kgs as well as increase my aerobic fitness and explosive speed. At the beginning of the program all my measurements were taken, as well as my Yo-yo score and horizontal leap. I weighed in at 98.9kgs and had a Yo-yo score of 15.6 and poor results on my horizontal leap. At the beginning of the training sessions, I was nursing a hamstring injury, however that did not stop Jose from making me push myself session after session and push myself in the gym. Early on in the program, I injured my shoulder and other hamstring which put me out of action for about 3 weeks. Even though I could not fully train for 3 weeks, I still wanted to show up to Jose’s training session every week. He and his team would give me separate exercises and drills to do to make sure I was still conditioning throughout the recovery process. Once I had recovered from those set backs, my drive to train increased as I saw results from Jose’s training.

His advice in regards to food was spot on for what I was trying to achieve. He helped formulate a meal plan that I could stick to and enjoyed at the same time. This made it easy to see results as my gym numbers increased and the ease at which I was running increased also.

Fast forward to halfway through the Pre season program and Jose weighed me in. I had managed to get down to 92.7kgs and 17% body fat, whilst increasing my horizontal leap and Yo-yo scores marginally. Next we entered the power phase of the preseason program where Jose focused on plyometric training and sprinting technique. Even with the lesser running and heavy focus on technique, the sessions still managed to work me hard. My speed and agility was increasing. I felt lighter and quicker off the mark than I had in a long time. Jose introduced 2 new tests at the beginning of the year to go with the explosive workouts. The Phosphate test and the 1km time trial. For my phosphate test I hovered around the 1:10 mark and for the 1km I managed a 4:07. Again I encountered another hamstring injury, but still Jose kept pushing. Once full fitness was regained progress increased again. At the final testing session, I recorded phosphate times almost 5 seconds faster than the first set and a 4 min flat km.

The program Jose put me through over the past summer was exactly what I needed. Jose put me and a few others through the ringer for 16 weeks to get the results we were after. Personally I saw myself motivated to go for runs and attend gym 6 times a week just to beat my scores from the previous rounds of testing. My squatting reps increased from sets of 10 at 100kgs, to sets of 120kgs and even one set at 130kgs! My chin up numbers are up, my bench press numbers are up, my motivations at an all time high. I’m endeavouring to maintain the eating style Jose has coached me into and best of all, my self esteem is back up. I feel so confident not worrying about if people think I'm over weight. Even though I haven't lost too much weight, I know what weight is there is good weight. Thanks to Jose I feel amazing!

The next step for me is to get under that magical number of 90kgs and really focus on my fitness for my refereeing and touch rugby. I will most definitely be going back to Jose and his team to plan my next stage of development and will most certainly be back in October to go through 16 weeks of pain for the results I have seen.
I could not recommend Jose any higher for what he does. I have recaptured a former fitness and now intend on improving on it. I have been given the tools and know-how as well as the motivation by Jose, and no words can describe the feeling of when you see progress.
Thank you so much Jose!!!