John Burkam

Fitness Instructor/Personal Trainer

John joined the Blackberry Gymnasium team in August 2007 and has very much enjoyed his time working closely with a variety of people to help them achieve their personal objectives and goals.

He is employed as a Fitness Instructor at the Blackberry Gymnasium and is responsible for inducting members, running initial fitness assessments and designing individual training programmes.

John is involved with the Active MK Exercise Referral Scheme (AMKERS), designed for people that have been referred to undertake physical activity to help improve their health and/or quality of life. He also enjoys doing Personal Training with his clients as it provides a real sense of achievement when helping an individual on a one-to-one basis.

John studied at De Montfort University (now formed to make the University of Bedfordshire) for three years and graduated with a BSc (Hons) Degree in Applied Sports Science. He also has a Higher National Diploma in Sports Science, a Level 1 FA Coaching Badge, and a Sports Leadership Award - plus over 100 hours of voluntary coaching work both in schools and at local sports clubs.

He currently teaches the Stretch and Tone exercise class which is focussed on improving body awareness, flexibility and general movement on a regular basis and the Circuit Class when cover for the regular teacher is required. He very much enjoys the nature of working at the Blackberry Gymnasium as it provides an excellent opportunity to work closely with all of the members that attend the gymnasium and with clients that have rehabilitation programmes from the Blackberry Clinic. One of his favourite aspects of the job is being creative and he very much enjoys having the opportunity to design and produce a lot of the advertising and marketing material.