Folkestone Invicta pair winning their battles to get fit

Fitness guru Lloyd Partner revealed the progress being made by Martin Chandler and Rob Knott in their battle to improve their fitness ahead of the new season.

Both players have been working hard on intensive fitness and diet programmes set by former professional footballer Lloyd, with the target of being fully prepared for Folkestone Invicta’s pre-season training, which commences on 30^th June.

“Martin is no longer training with me as he stopped at the end of the season purely because of financial reasons for the club,” Partner told www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk.

“Then I set him a programme during the summer, which consisted of running, swimming and cycling and a lot of hill running.

“I didn’t hear from him until last week when I heard rumours that he was sitting on his backside and eating some pies and he phoned me this week and said there was something on the website about that and he was really annoyed.

“Anyway, I actually weighed him and he hadn’t put any weight on so I was really pleased and he’s obviously been doing the programme I set him.

“He actually set the programme and I know every Saturday he has been running from his home in the East Cliff down to Hythe with his swimming gear on, swimming 40 lengths at the pool and then getting a lift back.”

Mr Partner explained the impressive progress that Chandler has made since he embarked on fitness and lifestyle work with him, generously funded by Mr Nigel Busbridge and Andy Ingleston, both Folkestone Invicta’s directors.

“When he first started with me he was 13 st 13 lbs and he had a body fat percentage of 27.9%.

“When I weighed him last Thursday (21^st June), he was 13 st 3 lbs and his body fat was 19.6%. He has lost a hell of a lot of body fat and put a lot of muscle on and you can actually see his abdominal muscles now rather than a big belly.

“He can’t wait to start the season and at the end of the day I’ve done my job, I think he’s done his and he has worked as hard as he can and he’s now got to turn that into a decent pre season.”

Promising striker Knott, who has been sidelined for much of the last season with a troublesome knee injury, is another player to have benefited from Lloyd’s expertise.

Knott had the all clear on his knee by a specialist towards the end of last season and was told by manager Neil Cugley and player coach Mark Saunders that he would need to shape up in order to play a proper part in the pre season and rediscover the goal scoring form he showed the season before last.

Mr Partner said: Rob is doing really well. I’ve only seen him once for a consultation last week but he’s been coming to my classes on Wednesday nights and he’s really done his best with that.

“He’s been out running and is still having a few twinges with his knee but I told him that is just post operative stress on his knee and he’ll be fine.

“He’s looking really fit compared to when he first came to the class. Back then I honestly didn’t think he was a footballer as he was massive, but he has slimmed down and done a lot of training on his own and full credit to him for that”.

After the success with Chandler and Knott, Partner is also very likely to play a part in Invicta’s pre season training schedule.

“We haven’t really gone into too much detail with it yet but I spoke to Mark Saunders yesterday and he wanted me to do a session with the players just to give them something different because they obviously do a lot of running pre season,” he revealed.

“I’ll be going in there, possibly working on their strength and endurance but I don’t know the exact details yet.

“In the league Folkestone are in it is vital to get a good pre season because the fitter the players are, the easier it’s going to be.

“There’s not usually that many talented players, it’s just young, fit, strong lads and the bigger the edge you can have over an opponent the better.

“Folkestone have got some good players by all accounts and the fitter they are the better they will perform.”

Article courtesy of Andy Bown and Tom Marchant - www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk