Time to share some stuff that I wouldn’t usually. I’m normally private about my own training because, in my opinion, what I choose to do in terms of my own fitness doesn’t relate to how I coach others. When I’m selling myself as a PT, it’s about how I relate to prospective clients, and bear their wants and needs in mind, rather than what I do with my own body.
This stance is more unusual than I’d like it to be in the industry, but that’s a topic for another day. One of the ways I separate business and personal is to keep my own training to myself – what I do isn’t something my clients should be worrying about or comparing themselves to. However, this year I’ve decided to take on a new challenge, and I wanted to share a bit of the journey. This isn’t to give myself a round of applause, but rather to share insight on what might be involved in preparing for an event, and I how I feel about it all.
July 2025: Nuclear Storm Doubles
I first heard about the Nuclear Fit event in 2024 via a LinkedIn connection. It was referenced in a post I made on a question I’m often asked – should a client sign up for Hyrox? Because I didn’t know what Nuclear Fit was, I Googled it, and soon found it appealing.
Whilst Hyrox is a cardio-focused event, Nuclear Fit’s stations are strength-orientated. And, even better, they do a run-free version known as Nuclear Storm. As someone who only runs towards food, that’s when I was sold. What’s also great is that the team organises several training dates throughout the year – it’s a chance to visit the venue and try out each station to help you prepare. I’m also a very organised person, so this appealed to me too!
I signed up for a training session with the intention of it partly being a vibe check – Nuclear Fit is outside of my local area, and I didn’t know anyone else who had done it yet, so I wanted to see what the atmosphere was like before committing to a competition… but then things escalated quickly as I invited a friend along and, before the training date even arrived, our love of a challenge got the better of us, and that’s how I ended up booking to run the doubles with her during the summer.
Nuclear training day
Another key difference between Nuclear Fit and Hyrox is that the former takes place outdoors. In the UK, this is quite risky business, but I’ve also always thought that Hyrox and other indoor competitions look like sensory overload. I love being outdoors, but rarely get to strength train that way, so again it was a big tick for me.
One Saturday in March, the sun had been out for several days in a row by the time we took our road trip from Sussex to Essex, and dove in to this new experience. We arrived to a well-organised session with kit ready to go. The team explained that there would be some differences on race day – both formats involve you receiving a chip to time your entry, so you have to be clear on how to use the timing mat and enter and exit each station.
Then it was time to try all of the toys! My race partner, Anneli, and I have trained together a fair bit in the past – we got each other through socially-distanced workouts! – and we’re a good match in terms of natural strengths and weaknesses, as well as both being taller women. The tyre flip station was an easy favourite for me – not every gym has one, but ours does and we mastered it some time ago. The competition tyre is smaller than the one at our home gym, which meant that we knew we were capable and our confidence in at least one section was high!
Things to work on
Brains and bodies working at 90mph, we had a chat about strategies for race day, where we might make changeovers, and how we’d support each other, as well as ensuring that we tried everything out. We’ve come away with a plan to get ourselves ready at a steady pace, to ensure that we complete the competition as comfortably as possible and achieve our main goal of having fun whilst challenging ourselves.
There was a chance to chat logistics with the team too – we’ve been advised to arrive an hour before our start time, and be prepared to warm ourselves up. I’ve explained to several people who have asked that another key appeal for me is that training for this shouldn’t take over my life: I wanted an event that adds something to my existing training, rather than pulling me in an entirely different direction – my life is already full and busy, I need something that complements me.
Training is underway – come back soon for an update, and then towards the end of July I’ll be able to tell you how we got on!