Liphook Community Magazine Winter 2021

GETTING LIPHOOK FIT AND MOTIVATED
AfterBurn Fitness
Jack Plumridge.
For Jack Plumridge AfterBurn Fitness is a labour of love. From
starting his business fresh out of university with just a mat and
a couple of kettle bells and a handful of clients to successfully
running 16 different classes, personal training sessions and
much more, Jack has achieved a lot in just five years. We caught
up with the man who motivates many Liphook residents to find
out what inspires him, his journey to success and what’s next for
AfterBurn Fitness.
Having spent most of this childhood playing rugby, football and
cricket, Jack has always had an interest in sports. At the age of 12
Jack started to find a passion for fitness and conditioning,
training to improve his own sports performance. In 2013, Jack
went onto study Sport and Exercise Science (BSc) at Oxford
Brookes University and it was on his return to Liphook he made
the decision to set up AfterBurn Fitness. “I was fresh faced and
did not have the foggiest about the wonderful world of selfemployment,”
he recalls. “I started with some basic equipment
and advertised as a mobile personal trainer. I was only doing
one session a week for the first couple of months, working as a
class instructor for Forest Mere Champneys while I built up my
client base.”
As the months passed, Jack admits it was hard and at times felt
like giving up, but “was determined to make a success of it”. But
inspired by his parents’ own work ethic and their encouragement
he persevered. “My parents were a huge inspiration for me. It
inspired me to create something that I could call my own and
grow. They were the ones who told me to give AfterBurn a try
and persuaded me against a career in the police!”
As his private client base began to build, he was able to run his
first circuits class at Liphook Junior School with six people in
attendance and hasn’t looked back since.
AfterBurn now offers a wide variety of classes for all abilities, and
the main driving force for this is Jack’s unwavering belief that
AfterBurn can help people achieve what they believed to be
unachievable no matter their ability. “It’s really important to
provide people with a safe and friendly environment in which to
train, where nobody feels judged or intimidated. We want to have
something on offer for each person to crack on with. There’s
something for everyone,” says Jack.
It has been a steep learning curve for Jack, but five years on he
has built a business on community and word of mouth. “Word
of mouth has more power than thousands of hours of tangible
advertising,” Jack explains. “But I do have the constant worry of
not having sufficient business to provide a high-quality service
with a good atmosphere. We have to regularly advertise and
market ourselves.”
“It can be a juggling act,” he adds. “You're effectively a PT, a class
instructor, marketeer, accountant, PA, the list goes on! When
you first start out it does mean that other areas of your life are
put on hold, but you begin to prioritise things and realise you
can't do everything!” But it’s not just business acumen that Jack
has had to learn. “Patience is something I definitely had to work
on in myself. Growing up I had relatively little of it, but it's a trait
I'm so glad to have learned. Appreciating that not everything
happens when you want it to and that things happen when they
happen, so you just have roll with it!” he says.
Over the years Jack has also appreciated that not all people
react the same when it comes to motivation. “Some like to be
shouted at like a drill sergeant, while some prefer gentle positive
reinforcement,” Jack explains. “What people can achieve when
their mind is 100% focused is astonishing.”
But what motivates the man that motivates many clients across
Liphook? Jack can be forgiven for saying that he wants to make
AfterBurn a success – it is, after all, his business. But for Jack it
goes beyond that. “I was significantly overweight, unfit and very
unhappy with my appearance, so I am determined to help others
achieve what I have. It is incredibly rewarding seeing physical
transformations or helping people to battle mental and physical
illnesses. For example one client managed to get back to fitness
despite double pneumonia and sceptic shock – that is something
that will stick with me forever.”
Community is also at the heart of AfterBurn Fitness and over the
past five years AfterBurn has taken part in many charity events,
including most recently, a fitness marathon for one of his clients
raising more than £4,000 as well as social events such as a
summer party.
“We want to continue improving our service, offering more
classes at different times and getting more people involved in the
AfterBurn community. The more we have, the more we can offer!”
Find out more about AfterBurn Fitness at:
www.afterburnfitness.co.uk
Katherine Alana
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