Paul back at Lifestyle

One of his first moves has been to run a competition with the prize of a year's free membership - this was won by Sharon Griffin - with the aim of publicising the gym and raising its profile.

"Definitely people have noticed," he commented.

"It gets the name out there, and a lot of people have now heard I am back - I returned in January to take over running the gym, and it has been a good couple of months."

He took two years out to concentrate on triathlon training, leaving the running of the business to his mother Alison who specialised in sports physiotherapy.

Alongside his gym work where he focuses on personal involvement with members and a high standard of one-to-one coaching, Paul also runs Bexhill Running Club with his father Lee and plans to set up his own Lifestyle triathlon club.

The running club has been growing steadily since it started nine years ago and now has around 70 members.

The club meets every Wednesday evening at 7pm and Saturday morning at 8am.

Paul said: "It is ridiculous - it's huge. We had 30 runners in the Hastings half-marathon, and now we run the six race series every year, with 4/5k races, the 10k race in September, and the half marathon on Remembrance Sunday to raise money for the Royal British Legion.

Now 28, Paul doesn't get his sportiness from strangers - he takes after Lee, a lifelong runner who still competes in Iron Man competitions, and the two plan to compete together in this gruelling event in Lanzarote this summer.

Paul showed amazing promise at school - he swam at country level until 12 years old and from 10-15 played tennis at high standard and travelled all over the country to compete. His main love however was football and he played for the district and county also, while training for Reading FC as a youth player, as well as Hastings United. He threw himself into the world of football and dreamed of playing professionally so was devastated when he was turned away at the age of 16.

"I was destroyed," he said.

"But my dad had always cycled, always did triathlons, and as a family we used to watch and take part. I would do the kids events, and then I wanted to do triathlons and Iron Man events myself ...So I went off and studied fitness instruction, personal training and sports therapy, then I worked at the David Lloyds gym in Eastbourne as an instructor. Then I went travelling and was in Australia for six months...I got a job in a gym there and learned about personal training, looking after people on a much more personal basis and keeping the quality of coaching high."

It was summer 2000 that he opened up his own gym in Western Road and started the running club off, little knowing it would become such a local success.

Paul said: "I treat the gym more of a club than a business...I try to look after everyone, try to motivate them, and I know everyone that comes here, exactly what they are aiming for, and I know what they do in the gym. We know what is going on and we talk about it - people become part of what we do here. All my friends have come from here over the nine years, and we have a high retention rate because people come back, they always return which is a good sign.

"My idea now having established the running club is to establish a triathlon club. I want to stay in sport and push myself and compete at the highest level I can but I love coaching as much as I love training and, so I see myself promoting Team Lifestyle and running the club.

"I have always wanted to try and give something back to the sport - like my dad, he always wanted to give something back to the sport and create something in the town. it has stemmed from that really - it has snowballed and we have lots of events during the year and raise a lot of money for charity.

"The aim is to build something really - to have something in the town, maybe a big triathlon and a big half marathon the same as Hastings, to put the town on the map."