About Odyssey

 An introduction from Odyssey founder Dave Fletcher…

 Hello and welcome to Odyssey Fitness. I am going to take this opportunity to introduce our ethos and the truly unique system we have developed to maximise results with our clients.

The word Odyssey sums it up really, ‘A meaningful journey’. This is exactly what we do with our clients. We simply guide them step by step towards their desired situation which is usually a leaner and healthier version of themselves.

I created Odyssey with the intention of establishing a unique approach to achieving fat loss results through exercise and nutrition. 10 years on, over 10,000 hours of practical experience later, a media portfolio and recognition from leading education providers including The Institute of Human Performance, Odyssey Fitness leads the way when it comes to achieving fat loss results.

The Odyssey story begins here…

My journey began in Loughborough where I studied sports science and lived my student life as a competitive kick boxer. Having trained and competed as an amateur kick boxer from my mid teens, I was no stranger to exercise but had little idea about structuring an effective training programme or eating in accordance to my specific goal.

In my early years as a kickboxer, I had focused solely on aerobic exercise and ignored the importance of developing my core, strength and speed. All my preparations had come in the form of running and cycling which I now know is the reason why I struggled to change my body shape and make an impact whilst competing in the early years.

When I arrived in Loughborough as a student, I was quickly introduced to a style of training within the University gym which all the athletes seemed to swear by. The quality of the physiques and numbers of Olympic gold medals that ex-students of Loughborough had clocked-up was evidence enough for me to make big changes to my own training.

This style was called functional training and was based around making the most out of your time in the gym rather than ‘the longer you spend on that treadmill the better’.  I learned that quality, not quantity is required to make long term changes and that weight training if used correctly is a far more effective  tool than aerobic exercise when it comes to changing a body shape and developing performance.

I became leaner, faster, stronger and fitter than my opponents even though I did less running and spent less time in the gym. This made a huge impact on my performance and played a key role in my achievements – three British Kickboxing titles, English Champion and a top 10 amateur world ranking in 2003.

My experiences as an athlete in Loughborough provided me with the desire to learn more about effective programme design and achieving results. This took me all over the world where I studied and trained with several industry leaders (JC Santana, Charles Poliquin and Paul Chek) in my quest to create an effective and systemised approach to achieving quick results on a one to one basis. This functional training approach is now at the forefront of the fitness industry and provides the backbone to all Odyssey training programmes.

To this day, Odyssey exercise programmes are still based on the main principles I learned in Loughborough which include mixing up any given programme with weights, aerobic exercise, core strength and in many cases kick boxing. We actively avoid long runs and endless amounts of cardiovascular exercise and stick to the ‘quality not quantity’ rule.

Why does Odyssey guarantee greater results?

 Quite simply, to achieve results quickly, we must have a comprehensive overview of your body type. For this reason, we place strong emphasis on initially assessing our clients and establishing personalised feedback in the form of a nutrition plan and exercise programme.

The service we offer is very different from anything you can expect from a Health Club. Our clients come to us looking for a higher level of knowledge in order to achieve a specific result. The level of qualifications and experience of our trainers allows us to get results quickly simply by having an in depth understanding of different body types.

Upon completion of an initial assessment, we will have the required information to design a results driven programme for you. We will establish your hormonal profile based on where you store your body fat (Bio Signature), we will tell you how tolerant to carbohydrates you are and which ones you should eat and avoid, we will assess your body composition to confirm which type of muscle fibre you are dominant in which tells us which type of exercise is best suited for you.

For more performance related goals, we will also complete a whole body strength assessment which accurately dissects which muscles and movements are weak providing us with the weak links to your overall strength.

Odyssey has worked exclusively with numerous premiership footballers, fitness models and professional cricketers as well as featured in several well known newspapers and magazines. Since creating Odyssey and establishing a reputation for achieving results, I have also travelled around the UK lecturing over 1000 Personal Trainers in Health Clubs on how to maximise results with their clients.

Please don’t just take my word for all of this. I would urge you to have a read through our testimonials page and see what our clients think of the work we have done for them.

Dave Fletcher