An award-winning gym owner is celebrating his 4th year in business by challenging the nation to spend just five minutes with him to fall in love with exercise.
Javeno McClean owns Manchester-based J7, a gym he founded in 2017 which now has more than 11,500 Instagram followers.
The 36-year-old is launching the J-7’s 5-minute start-up sessions on Zoom, using his own unique style, passion, energy and enthusiasm to get people off their sofas and on the exercise path to a healthier lifestyle.
The bitesize sessions are aimed at anyone, from five-year-olds to 95-year-olds. And his inspiration for setting them up is from one of his clients, who he calls his queen, 76-year-old Brenda Simpson, one of his biggest supporters.
Before he set up the business Javeno worked for Manchester City Council running exercise sessions in the community. At first there was just one attendee – Brenda and it was Javeno and Brenda for those very first four months of operation.
But Brenda spread the word among her family and friends and more and more people started attending. Eventually Javeno’s class sizes grew to 130 and they had to move to bigger venues twice.
After four years Javeno left the Council and set up J7 in Old Market Street, Blackley, Brenda and the others followed him and that’s where he says the J7 community was created.
He now wants to take what he’s built-in Manchester to the nation by urging people to try out his bitesize virtual sessions while the gym is closed because of COVID-19 restrictions.
The Dad of one said: “Brenda has definitely inspired me. She started training with me from day one after having two hip replacements and is now doing a hundred squats a day challenge to raise money for charity. If you need proof that you can start exercising at any age and fall in love with it, Brenda is it.
“Brenda’s support and the people she introduced to me who have also been attending our classes from the start have helped me create the J7 family, because that’s what we are at the gym. We’re different than others out there. We’re intergenerational, support each other and our classes are aimed at all ages. You won’t see me posing on Instagram with my top off, that’s not the kind of guy I am. I’m not about making classes trend online I just want to inspire people to fall in love with exercise.
“The level of care you get from me and the team at J7 is unmatched. I guarantee people who train with us, will have that much fun and excitement they won’t realise how hard we’re working them and how much fitter they’re getting as a result. Obviously, it’s difficult at the moment because we’re closed but we’re doing lots of sessions on-line and our members are supporting us massively.
He added: “I set myself a target of changing the face of how exercise is taught and delivered in Manchester, now I want to take that further. Years back, I wrote down an entire plan and vision on a blank A4 piece of paper at my Mum’s house in Crumpsall and called it: ‘J7, a centre of excellence for the entire community.
“A place where the whole family from oldest to youngest could exercise and get health and fitness support. Now I’m living my dream and my aim is to take our brand nationally, to share my love and enthusiasm with exercise and inspire others to love it too.”
Brenda said: “Javeno and the rest of the team at J7 are just fantastic. They look after me, they look after everyone and tailor the sessions to peoples’ abilities. They call me Queen Brenda here and have even given me a lifetime’s membership which means so much but more than that they’ve given me a love for exercise and a place that feels like home. It might be closed for now, but I can’t wait to go back once gyms are allowed to reopen and I know all our other members feel the same.
To see Javeno in action visit his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSNmFx3ip2FrrJp57_iuoWQ
Or visit the J7 Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/j7healthjaveno/
To get involved with J7’s 5 minute start up sessions please visit J7’s Instagram page.
