Clairegrayfitnesssolutions

08/03/2022

Happy international womens day

Lovely gift from my PT client this morning .. to celebrate international womens day in Ukrainian colours . Thank you Heather 😊

23/01/2022

Don't forget Legs Bums and Tums tomorrow morning!

Book here https://www.clairegrayfitnesssolutions.co.uk/product/legs-bums-and-tums-mondays-9-30am-in-the-renu-studio/

Legs Bums and Tums will be commencing each each Monday at 9:30am - payable £5 a week walk ins welcome!

Claire is back in the studio at renu to offer this very popular class face to face every Monday morning. Low impact, easy to follow exercises to tighten your assets. Delivered in Claire’s own unique style. A great way to start the week

11/12/2021

JOIN US ON OUR FESTIVE FITNESS COUNTDOWN
Festive Fitness Countdown - £18.00 - Starts Tomorrow – 31st December!

We have an amazing Festive Fitness offer running over the Christmas break. The offer includes 12 x 30 minute work out videos ranging from Pilates, Yoga, higher intensity training and a dedicated Abs workout too.

Not only this you will be rewarded with 3 AMAZING treats from Renu!

Take a look and book below:

https://www.clairegrayfitnesssolutions.co.uk/product/festive-fitness-countdown/

Limited Offer! Available from 12th – 31st December. All of these videos are suitable to be done at home and can be enjoyed by yourself or get the whole family involved too! No equipment required, just a simple workout space (and internet connection to play the videos!).

09/12/2021

Claire’s Festive Christmas Countdown is coming!!!

JOIN US ON OUR FESTIVE FITNESS COUNTDOWN!

We have an amazing Festive Fitness offer running over the Christmas break. The offer includes 12 x 30 minute work out videos ranging from Pilates, Yoga, higher intensity training and a dedicated Abs workout too.

All of these videos are suitable to be done at home and can be enjoyed by yourself or get the whole family involved too! No equipment required, just a simple workout space (and internet connection to play the videos!).

Not only this you will be rewarded with 3 AMAZING treats from Renu!

For the full offer information click on the link below:

Limited Offer! Available from 12th – 31st December. All of these videos are suitable to be done at home and can be enjoyed by yourself or get the whole family involved too! No equipment required, just a simple workout space (and internet connection to play the videos!).

07/12/2021

JOIN US ON OUR FESTIVE FITNESS COUNTDOWN
Festive Fitness Countdown - £18.00 - Available from the 12th – 31st December!

We have an amazing Festive Fitness offer running over the Christmas break. The offer includes 12 x 30 minute work out videos ranging from Pilates, Yoga, higher intensity training and a dedicated Abs workout too.

Not only this you will be rewarded with 3 AMAZING treats from Renu!

Take a look and book below:

https://www.clairegrayfitnesssolutions.co.uk/product/festive-fitness-countdown/

Limited Offer! Available from 12th – 31st December. All of these videos are suitable to be done at home and can be enjoyed by yourself or get the whole family involved too! No equipment required, just a simple workout space (and internet connection to play the videos!).

18/10/2021

22/08/2021

🏋️ Don't forget to book onto tomorrow's Legs Bums & Tums class! 🏋️

Monday mornings at 9.30 am in the Renu Studio - £5 per class

The legs bums and tums class is a 45 minute class with low impact easy to follow exercises delivered in Claire's own unique style.

Book here: https://www.paypal.com/instantcomm.../checkout/QEWKBZUAVWV9W

15/08/2021

🏋🏿‍♀️Legs Bums & Tums is back in the Renu studio tomorrow! 🏋🏿‍♀️
It's not too late to join the fun, get booked onto tomorrows 9.30am class now - £5 per class - Book here: https://www.paypal.com/instantcomm.../checkout/QEWKBZUAVWV9W

09/08/2021

We are so excited to be reintroducing face to face classes to Renu this summer.
As well as relaunching our legs bums and tums classes Claire will also be running a three week course of Pilates and Yoga in the Renu studio starting this week. There are still some spaces available, take a look at the details below!

Tuesday courses:
9.30am – 10.30am - Pilates
10.40 – 11.40am - Fitness Yoga
£26.75 for 3 week course - 10th/ 17th and 24th August

Wednesday courses:
5.30pm – 6.30pm - Pilates
£28.75 for 3 week course - -11th/ 18th and 25th August

Give us a call or email to get booked onto these courses. 01778 423923 - reception@renu.uk.com

20/07/2021

Beaut Camp is Back 👍👏👏👏

01/07/2021

It is 15 years since I started my business ReNU Health Beauty Fitness and to mark the occasion I have been sharing a little about myself and my business journey .
Part 9
Shortly after I transferred to the Sam Jones Peterborough club, I was offered the position of Fitness Manager at LivingWell Premier Health Club in Werrington. (Now Bannatynes )

It was the first big corporate club to put roots in the city. This was the second time I had started a new job working from a portacabin on a building site and I was grateful for my previous experience of helping to manage the pre opening of a flagship club.

We sold over 3000 memberships prior to opening and it was my job to ensure they all knew how to use the gym on day one. It was a challenge, but proved possible.

In an early performance appraisal, the General Manager Chris Rushden stated “Claire’s desk belies her organisational abilities” which just about summed me up in one 😊

Two years on, I was promoted to General Manager. With 8 Heads Of Department , over 80 staff, and a flagship club with a challenging budget to meet. I found myself on a steep learning curve once again.

The Sensory Hair and Beauty department was responsible for a big chunk of overall budget and I learned a great deal about the hair and beauty business under the expert guidance of Louise Moore. This has been invaluable to me in more recent years .

We won several prestigious awards, including FLAME Club of the year and the Peterborough Evening Telegraph Business of the year . We also sponsored Peterborough United Football Club and Peterborough Sportswoman of the year .
These are a few press cuttings from that time .

Working for a large corporate company like Hilton has many advantages . The management, marketing, personnel and operational training I received opened a whole new set of boundaries for me and established a strong foundation for a window of opportunity that presented itself in 2006 …

28/06/2021

15 years ago I started my business ReNU Health Beauty Fitness and this month I have been sharing a little about me and my business journey.

I had spent over 10 years successfully teaching community classes to all ages and abilities alongside a presenting career and part time NVQ assessor .

Peterborough was a little late to the party, but big shiny new health clubs were popping up all over the country and I smelt a change in the air .

DC Leisure opened the first big health club in Peterborough (where TRU GYM is now) and Mr Motivator was there at the launch 😂
I secured a couple of classes there and a few hours a month to advise on their studio offering.
I think I was a little full of my own importance at the time , but despite this , Howard Brayband approached me to consider the Fitness Manager position for their new build club in Sheffield .

At this point I was divorced with a house and two children to support . I went to meet Tim Foster with no real intention of taking the job, but I soon saw it was an opportunity to secure a more stable future.

I made the momentous decision to give up my classes and presenting and take the job in Sheffield . This meant my two daughters (then 11and 13) would live with their Dad in the week and I would be a weekend parent. It was the most difficult decision I have ever taken and one I could not have made without an understanding ex husband, the love and support of some very dear family and friends , and two incredible daughters .

Initially I stayed in lodgings and then shared a house with the sales Manager Emma Wallis. I worked constantly from Monday lunchtime to Friday lunchtime before making the drive home.

On my first day, Tim gave me a large pile of C.V’s and said I needed to interview and recruit a team of 7 fitness instructors and a senior instructor. I had never interviewed before and he took one look at my face and gave me a crash course on interviews! This was just the start of a very steep learning curve .

I loved Sheffield and would have liked to stay, but the draw of our local schools could not be matched and I felt my children had had enough upheaval. 10 months later I transferred to the Peterborough club.

Sam Jones Health Clubs for Real People were perhaps a little ahead of their time. It was about how exercise made you feel rather than how it made you look and their marketing was aimed at people of all ages , abilities, shapes and sizes . It was a concept that resonated with me, and one I continue to promote In my own business today .

23/06/2021

This month it’s 15 years since I started my business ReNU Health Beauty Fitness and I am sharing a little about myself and my business journey.
Part 7
Much as I enjoyed presenting, I am more in my comfort zone training and developing rather than performing.
YouTube didn’t launch until 2005 and instructors attended conventions and masterclasses to get ideas and hone their skills .
I was given the opportunity to be a National Tutor by Jan and Roger Field Byrne and I delivered instructor training courses in Step, Indoor cycling, and Kids Fitness .
At that time, Beauty Therapists took a City and Guilds qualification that required them to know about exercise prescription and I worked as a lecturer at Stamford College one day a week.
This was my first brush with the beauty industry and it gave me a good insight to their college life. I had no idea this would be useful for my future business!
The NVQ criteria did not require this for beauty but I was offered a job with the college teaching basic physiology and anatomy to the sports therapy students one day a week. I became an NVQ Assessor.
This led to me working part time as a Teacher Trainer and Assessor for Active Training Ltd. The first picture was taken on a memorable week when all the assessors went to Club La Santa in Lanzarote for training .
I ran courses mainly in Enfield but also a couple of one week intensives at Club La Santa .
Assessing is not a photo opportunity, but a few clips here to give you the idea of what I was up to.
My love for training and developing people has stayed with me throughout my business life

21/06/2021

This month marks 15 years since I started my business ReNU Health Beauty Fitness and I am sharing a little about myself and my business journey .
Part 5
As well as presenting on an individual basis I teamed up with my friend Jane Tress and together we created “The Double Act” . We had completed our first fitness qualification together in 1989 and had each become successful in our own right . Together, we found a combination that proved to be very popular with instructors and participants alike.

We travelled the country with our double act tours with master-classes and instructor workshops and presented at all the industry conventions ,

In those days we relied on promotional flyers , mail drop and good old word of mouth recommendation . I’ve found a few of our flyers and a little press release from that time
🥰

18/06/2021

As it’s 15 years this month since I started my business ReNU Health Beauty Fitness I have decided to share a little about myself and my business journey.
Part 4
My fitness qualifications gave me the opportunity to carve out a career that fitted in with having a young family and allowed me to dance around to music in different formats. Perfect .

The transition of how that progressed over the next 10 years is hard to put in any particular order, but a significant start was when I met Sally Wormall.
Sally was at the top of her game as a presenter and educator at fitness conventions around the country and she asked me if I would team teach a step class at the International Aerobics Convention at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool . The class was called Double Trouble - a class choreographed for two people with two steps .

We had 300 instructors in our class in the Pavillon and I was terrified! It’s a very different ball game teaching your peers, but the class was successful and this opened a series of doors for me and I went on to become a presenter and educator myself

The first picture was used on the front cover of Sally’s “muscle moves” workout Video - (with Angie Appleton) I subsequently appeared with Michael King on his video (with Jane Tress) - we also appeared on the Richard and Judy breakfast show to promote his Kareoke Aerobics 😂and I presented an instructor training video myself for Active Training Ltd

The (rather tragic) picture below is Sally and I about to present Double Trouble)

Also a couple of pictures of me presenting at the Winter Gardens in subsequent years - .. more on that to come !

15/06/2021

This month marks 15 years since I started my business ReNU Health Beauty Fitness. To mark the event I have decided to share a little about my business journey. Here is part 3 -

Soon after John Travolta and Olivia Newton John had shimmied off into the sunset , Jane Fonda popped her head up with her home video workouts .

I had recently moved house, I was a full time Mum to my two young daughters and mortgage interest rates had just exceeded 15%

I knew how to put a routine together and how to teach it to a group, so I watched the video, hired a hall, and ‘Claireobics’ was born 😂

I had no knowledge of physiology and anatomy or fitness principles. I had no insurance or music licence, but classes were popular and ignorance was bliss.

In 1989 I saw an advert in the local paper for an RSA Exercise to Music Teachers qualification in Werrington . My Mum lent me the money to enrol.

Whilst I was comfortable with the teaching techniques, I regularly sat up to the early hours after the children had gone to bed to learn the anatomy and physiology. I signed up for all the courses, conventions and workshops I could find as soon as I was qualified.

This is a trend that has stuck with me and has driven me to continue to qualify and update my knowledge in as many aspects of fitness as possible. These days that is more associated with Pilates and rehabilitation but in those days it was step, slide, kids fitness , spinning, older adults , pre and post natal , body pump, body combat , step etc etc. You name it I’ve taught it 😊

The biggest night of the week was Wednesdays when I hired the Fleet in Fletton and filled the main function room with fellow exercisers. Cardio Funk was a firm favourite for several years and I used to organise regular charity workouts there .

I joined a competition step team and now spent my evenings practicing full press ups on a step. We were rewarded with a bronze medal in the British Nationals at Wembley . I’m not a competitive spirit, but it was a great experience.

Social media was non existent. The best way to promote classes was in local shops and by getting the press interested in what I was doing.

These are a couple of clippings from that time …

09/06/2021

This month marks 15 years since I opened my business ReNU Health Beauty Fitness and I have decided to mark the occasion by sharing a little about myself and my business journey.

My parents moved to Peterborough when I was six and enrolled my sister and I at Derek Browns Dance Studios to learn ballroom and Latin American dancing . At the time, the dance studios were the best in the country with air conditioning and fully sprung floors . I spent the next 10 years cycling there and back twice a week to complete all my dance medals .
I don’t have any pictures of those days which is probably because the only opportunity to watch was on exam day, when you would dance with the teacher in front of a judge . That moment on strictly when they are on an empty dance floor waiting for the music to start always reminds me of those days .

Against all my teachers advice, I left school at 15 to work at the dance school. I loved it and taught children from 3 years up to adult couples for several years until I got married.

Monday nights was “Teens and Twenties” night which was basically for singletons. When John Travolta arrived on the big screen it was soon changed to Line Dancing classes and I spent many hours teaching his arm lines and hip action 😂
Derek and Edna would have huge dinner dances and invite international dance champions as the entertainment, such as Michael Stilyanos and Lorna Lee and Alan and Hazel Fletcher (worth a google)
I remember being in the back kitchen and the female dancer bursting through the door , doubled over and practically hyperventilating after her jive demonstration and then quickly raising herself up to go out for the next performance.

I learned early that you didn’t need to be sporty to be fit ( and I definately wasn’t sporty)

These picture are from after I left the dance school to bring up a family. I missed it so much I started a dance group and taught and choreographed us each week and we performed several times at the Cambridge dance festival and Peterborough Dance Project. I also choreographed for South Lincs Youth Theatre who did annual performances at the Key Theatre including the Wizard of Oz and Bugsy Malone .
I hated sports and I am grateful that dancing kept me so fit over the years and also taught me the importance of posture and keeping your head up and smiling even when it hurts .

It’s no real surprise that in my business I have always looked for diverse ways to offer fitness and well-being outside the regular gyms and sports fields 😊