Trainer to the stars aims for the double

A fitness fanatic who has worked with several famous faces hopes to retain his prestigious personal trainer of the year award after another successful year.
Fitness instructor Mark Bohannon puts TV star Gemma Atkinson through her pacesFitness instructor Mark Bohannon puts TV star Gemma Atkinson through her paces
Fitness instructor Mark Bohannon puts TV star Gemma Atkinson through her paces

Mark Bohannon fought off hundreds of other personal trainers from across the globe to win the UK Fitness Awards title at the start of the year, and aims to repeat the feat in 2018.

The 28-year-old, who works for Ultimate Performance (UP), can say that he played a hand in Gemma Atkinson’s getting to the Strictly Come Dancing final last Saturday after putting her through a rigorous fitness regime before the start of the series.

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He said: “What we do at UP is very results focused. It’s based purely on pictures of our clients, because the pictures never lie.

“It’s the first thing people notice when looking for a personal trainer.”

He added: “Our director scores results from all trainers at the end of the year, and I came out on top.

“We have the most competitive environment in the world, so to finish top of the UP board meant a little bit more.

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“It sounds a bit of a cliche, but to get recognition from outside was nice, not just for me, but for the company as well.”

His success is in part down to his work with celebrities such as Gemma Atkinson and Brooke Vincent, who has designs on appearing in Strictly herself but for the time being is limbering up for the ITV skating show Dancing on Ice.

The Ashton-born trainer, who now lives in Cheshire, spoke to the Post about his life as a personal trainer.

“I started about nine or 10 years ago,” he said.

“I went to St John Rigby College at Orrell, where I did a fitness instructing course.

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“At the time there were around 30 people in the class. One day we were discussing careers, and about 80 per cent wanted to be PE teachers, and the odds didn’t stack up.

“I was training a lot at the gym and playing rugby at the time, so I looked further into becoming a personal trainer.”

Mark soon went on to begin his career at the JJB Health Club in Wigan, which is now the DW Fitness Club.

After building his experience, Mark then moved from gym to gym to get further experience from other trainers.

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From there, he was given the opportunity to work with Ultimate Performance, where he remains to this day.

Mark said: “A lot of what we do is weights based. We get clients to do their own cardio and cycling.

“We really take control of the eating. We put nutritional plans together and constantly track their diets.”

He also gave advice to any Wiganers wanting to hire a personal trainer.

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“Make sure you shop around, and always try to get a personal trainer from a recommendation.

“Speak to someone who has had good results,” he said.

“There are hundreds of trainers in Wigan, who might have good marketing and talk a really good game, but nobody sells personal training better than their own clients.”

Mark first made the local headlines as a junior rugby league player.