Rupert is passionate about extreme outdoor sports and has conquered some of the toughest challenges on the planet! He talks to Sundried about motivation and his goals for the future.
Please tell us about sporting events you have taken part in or have coming up.
In order to push my Fitness threshold to new levels, I have taken part in a wide variety of challenges such as a180km cycle around Lake Geneva, the ‘Patrouille des Glaciers’ ski mountaineering race across the Swiss Alps, triathlons, Total Warrior and other obstacle course races, summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, The Knighthood of Sufferlandria (the toughest indoor cycling challenge in the world!), representing Great Britain at the Ski Mountaineering World Championships (2009) and Man vs. Mountain marathon over Snowdon to name a few.
Tell us about your journey to fitness? Where did it all start?
Growing up in Switzerland, I have always been keen on the outdoors in any form of endurance activity. Going hiking and camping at weekends, running on and off road, mountain biking and road cycling, rock climbing, skiing, wakeboarding, swimming and kayaking were all much more exciting than studying!
What are your training goals now?
My motto is to always maintain a base level of fitness to take on any challenge when the opportunity arises. I don’t enjoy Training for the sake of training but I do enjoy completing a challenge as opposed to saying: ‘Sorry I don’t think I’m fit enough’.
So my current goal is back to basics and working on improving my core strength and 5km time.
What would future you, tell yourself when you were starting out?
My advice to myself and anyone else would be: don’t skip today’s session because as much as today may hurt and how little you feel you may achieve – it is all adding up in the bigger picture!
What do you do to keep your clients motivated? Do you have any top tips to keep motivated?
Finding the motivation isn’t always easy, especially when I know I am going to have to push myself outside my comfort zone in order to improve, but remembering the overall goal and the reasons why I want to achieve new heights are what push me to carry on. Using mental imagery helps motivate me right up until race day. To keep clients motivated, I stay up to date with my social media so they know what I am up to and can see I push myself through the same pains as them.
Talk us through your training regime.
Specialising in functional training I would say my go-to piece of equipment would be a suspension trainer as it can be used anywhere and I can target the majority of my muscle groups with it.
How do you keep your fitness knowledge up to date?
Reading journal articles as well as attending training courses. I am currently expanding my instructing portfolio by working towards my Pilates qualification.
What are your top 3 trainer tips?
- Train because you want to, not because you have to.
- Make sure you always have something to train towards to help you stay motivated.
- Enjoy an 80-20 balance, don’t train so hard that you forget to enjoy yourself!
If you could only do one workout for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Running, as it can be done anywhere and there is always an alternative route.
Why work with Sundried?
I feel Sundried’s ethos aligns well with my own values of deeply caring about the environment and appreciating my surroundings. My favourite place to train is in the outdoors and Sundried has a similar passion.
Favourite fitness quote:
‘Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.’ Michael Jordan
