Irish people have been too casual about their approach to weight management for too long, but Sean Kinane is aiming to change that attitude through his company, Health Matters.
“I’m at the stage where I can stand still or take a big jump and it’s time to take a big jump.”
In these recessionary times, it is refreshing to hear such a positive outlook from a man in the early stages of starting a new business, but Sean Kinane, the man behind Health Matters, has good reason to be optimistic about the year ahead.
At this time of year, people are particularly conscious about getting in shape and shedding some of the fat that has lingered since the festive season, and through his company Health Matters, Sean provides an extremely practical and scientific approach to weight management.
He does this with machinery of a standard that is particularly scarce across the continent, never mind in Europe, and uses it to carry out metabolic and VO2 testing on clients to aid their weight management and fitness goals.
Things have just exploded lately, I’m all over the country every week and things are so busy that I’m looking at hiring staff this year.
The metabolic testing enables clients to understand just how much their metabolism affects their weight management and guides them on how to adjust their diet and lifestyle accordingly, while the VO2 test is for athletes who want an exact breakdown on their athletic capabilities and what they need to do to perform at their maximum level.
The level of accuracy of Sean’s machines are unmatched in this country and in later articles, we will go into greater detail about the machines and what exactly each test entails.
Health Matters is still in the developmental phase, having been established by Sean in April last year after he returned from his travels around the world. Sean qualified as a personal trainer prior to his departure in June 2009 and it was in Australia that he discovered a far more advanced approach to lifestyle and fitness management.
On his return in January of last year, he scoured the market with his father, who has been involved in the fitness industry for years, and found that there was a market there for the type of service he wanted to provide. Armed with the knowledge gained from his time as an extremely successful personal trainer in Perth and with extremely high standard machinery, Sean hasn’t looked back since.
“I set up Health Matters in April and it’s gone from strength to strength since,” Sean told JOE recently.
“It was a bit slow at the start when I was only in the one gym (Westpark Fitness, Tallaght) but now I’m in 12 or 13 gyms, I’m working with Triathlon Ireland and Athletics Ireland and having great success.
“The gyms seem like a stepping stone at the moment to get into the industry. Things have just exploded lately, I’m all over the country every week and things are so busy that I’m looking at hiring staff this year.”
The key to Sean’s success, he believes, is the portability of his machines. He doesn’t operate out of any specific base, meaning that if you want to avail of his services, he can come to you. Despite being in the fledgling stages of the business, word has already spread fast and he is busy trekking around the country to different clients.
Sean guides Dublin footballer Michael Dara McCauley through the VO2 test
“Every gym I go to I give free testing to the trainers to get them on board and subsequently they get their clients to come to me and that’s why it has been so successful. I can go anywhere with the machine,” he says.
To that end, Sean has visited office blocks and even home gyms to carry out tests, and as well as working with clients on a one-to-one or group basis, he is also involved with Triathlon Ireland and Athletics Ireland and plans to work with a chronic obesity unit in St. James’ Hospital.
As more and more people become aware of what Health Matters has to offer, Sean has become so busy to the extent that he’s looking to expand the business beyond a one-man operation.
“I’m looking at getting in promotional staff at the moment,” he told us.
“I used to go the gym Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights and stand there giving out flyers, talking to people, giving them general knowledge and of course, making the sale. I’m going to get someone in who has a sports science background and who knows what they’re talking about to do the promotions because when I’m doing the promotions, I can’t do the testing.
“Promotions are important, but testing is more important. I’m telling people I’m booked out all the time so I’ll get someone in doing the promotions, I’ll stay testing and eventually I’ll train them to be able to get the same results as myself so that I can have three other people testing rather than just myself as it is at the moment.”
Sean is very happy with the way things have gone so far and has achieved extremely successful results with his clients to date. In later articles, we will go into greater detail about the metabolic and VO2 tests, including Sean’s accounts of testing with elite sportsmen and, eh, my own personal experience of both tests, which, it would be fair to say, proved to be fairly eye-opening encounters!
If you think you’d be interested in what Health Matters has to offer, click here to visit the website to find out more information.
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