"The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary."

Mark Clarke, CEO

After 17 years in the City, during a time when investment banking was a respectable profession, I decided to quit and set up Trainsmart. I've always loved sport but due to the demands of the job and bad eating habits, I was carrying 8-9kg of stubborn lard that I couldn't shift. After taking a metabolic test in the USA and changing my training programme, I lost 10kg in 6 months and was genuinely amazed.  On the strength of this, I negotiated a deal to import the testing equipment and in 2002, I set up Trainsmart.

We had huge success with metabolic testing but the feedback from gyms and health clubs was that they wanted a "total package" and we were missing two vital components:

1) Instructor training to teach personal trainers and coaches how to use the system and analyse the results.

2) A training programme to give to clients after the test to help them do the correct training.

Working with PhD and post-graduate students, and elite level coaches from the UK and USA, I started writing our professional training courses.  Focusing on cardiovascular training, we now have the industry-recognised training courses: Advanced Cardiovascular Training Principles and Advanced Cardiovascular Programme Design.

Designing the training programme proved a lot more difficult. After years of grafting away to design a training programme which mirrors the advice given by elite level coaches, we've finally developed SmartZones. It not only designs your programme but continually adapts to modify your sessions according to how you actually train, making sure that you don't over or under train - just like a coach would do. Best of all, it does this automatically. SmartZones uses the latest empirical research and training methods to select the best session for your workout. This means you get professional level coaching at a fraction of the normal price.

It certainly doesn't do away with the need for coaches, as they will be able to use SmartZones to allow them to train more people. We are currently enhancing SmartZones to make it a coaching platform available to all coaches and personal trainers.

Moving from high finance to low fat has not been easy. I followed my heart and spent 7 years developing what many say is the best training system in the world. At the end of the day, I've designed this for you and I hope you find it useful.  We don’t sit on our laurels, so if there's something you don't quite like or want to see a feature which isn't there, drop me a line and let us know about it.  Safe miles!

Mark