Simon Hall is a body transformation coach who specialises in coaching his clients through dramatic body recomposition programmes. Recomposition is basically a process whereby clients improve their physique and body shape by increasing their muscularity, while simultaneously stripping body fat, much the same way that a bodybuilder might in preparation for a competition.
Simon has developed somewhat of a reputation for success with his body transformation courses and we recently caught up with him to find out more about what he’s doing.
Why did you decide to specialise in body composition?
With me, I got into personal training and realised I didn’t like the fact I was a bit limited with the amount of people I could help at any given time. I wanted to take what was happening on the one-on-one front and push it to a bigger audience. I had the lofty goal of changing the world basically. I wanted to develop a team of coaches that specialised in health, performance and body composition, and create a community where people can come and be surrounded by experts who can accommodate whatever goal they have. The aim was to make sure people were always in the best of hands, with health always being at the forefront of everything. That’s how it all started.
With the body composition aspect of things, that’s where the whole industry seems to be going at the minute. However, a lot of people are impatient when it comes to a body compositional goal and that’s at a detriment to the client’s health. For example, driving the calories down to a mere morsel and then driving energy expense through the ceiling – these aggressive methods aren’t how it should to be done.
How much extra work did you have to do on top of your standard PT qualification to get to the level of knowledge you have now?
I basically invest everything back into my education. Last year alone I spent over £17,000 on courses, materials, mentoring, travelling to meet field experts etc. After completing my qualifications, I actually spent a lot of time looking up people, asking for Skype chats, asking for an hour’s worth of time, travelling to different countries to meet people and actually hearing their top tips. Those were best things I can say education-wise. Aside from that, keep reinvesting in yourself, keep learning and look to stay ahead of the current material that’s out there.
Do you come across any common goals with your clients?
We get a huge array of goals coming through the door. Now with us being known for body composition, we get a lot of people who want to drastically transform their body and complete photoshoots. We get a lot of general fat loss clients and also people who just want bespoke nutritional plans. As a result of establishing our health team we are getting a lot come through with specific health goals.
We’re actually collaborating with Wilde Performance at the minute. From a health stance, these guys literally revolutionise people’s health conditions, so they will be a huge part of BC moving forwards.
Some people on the other hand come with completely unrealistic goals and timelines. It might sound weird, but people come with goals that aren’t actually for them. They’ll set out to achieve something in order to appease someone else or to try and prove something to someone. For those people, we have to say ‘this isn’t for you, it has to be for yourself and no one else’ – that crops up a lot.
How do you strike a balance between investing time in your own personal brand and Body Composition Ltd?
Initially, it all kind of started with me and now I’m bringing together a team of experts. So, at the minute it’s going through a change from being an individual thing to more of a team dynamic. Both my personal and our coaches’ brands fuel Body Composition Ltd. Obviously, there’s no way I’m going to be able to do this all on my own so I’ve surrounded myself with like-minded people to make the big vision possible.
Are there any immediate plans to further develop your brand or expand the business?
Everything we do is very serviced focused and bespoke, so our team focuses on that rather than becoming generic and too mainstream. We’re very true to our values and I feel as soon as you start going down the generic ‘one size fits all’ route, that’s when it starts to fall apart. There are a lot of things out there at the minute which suit that mass-market approach, but that’s not us and as long as we stay true to our values, we can’t go far wrong.
Do you have any advice for aspiring personal trainers?
The biggest advice I can give to anyone coming into this industry is: whatever your vision is, no matter how big, as long as you believe that you can achieve and actually do it, then just do it. I meet so many personal trainers who say ‘I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to create this’, but they seem almost too secure and they won’t take a risk or the action they need. I tell them to just go and do it and everything else will fall into place.
If you want to be doing something that you’re not doing now, go out and do it. Someone said the same thing to me once and the next day I just went out and did it… four months later look what we’ve built. Self-belief and self-worth, if you have those two things then you’ve already won.
