Meet Dan Boulle PerformancePro director. Dan has a Master’s degree in Strength and Conditioning and is an accredited personal trainer. He also looks at PerformancePro’s longer term strategy, keeping an eye on the ever-changing economic climate. Day to day, he works closely with fellow director Anthony Purcell on client services and he’s also PerformancePro’s Mr Fixit with drill and screwdriver close to hand!
Life before PerformancePro
Dan was born and raised in Kent and joined the army at 16. He trained as an aircraft technician and went on to serve for 13 years including tours in Northern Iraq and Bosnia. Working with the Army Air Corp and the Royal Marines, Dan maintained battlefield helicopters. Subsequently he left and worked in recruitment, then had a brief stint in Cornwall as an operations manager for a friend’s company. In the late 1990’s early 2000’s Dan invested in property, building a small portfolio in London and Cornwall.
Sports-wise, Dan played a lot of rugby and raced in giant slalom and downhill skiing. Athletics was always his big love and he enjoyed some success over 400m and 400m hurdles. He was also a national level body builder and made it to the finals of the NABBA Britain in 2006. Understandably, a career switch to sport and fitness at some stage was always an ambition.
Dan returned to London in 2004 and retrained as Personal Trainer, going on to complete an MSc in strength and conditioning at St Mary’s University. He met Mat Grove when studying for the Masters, and then through Mat he met Anthony Purcell. The three went on to establish PerformancePro in 2013.
Dan and PerformancePro
Dan had been working as a Personal Trainer for eight years under the name PerformancePro when he met Mat and Tony. He knew the fitness world was changing:
“Back then, most chain gyms we not only outmoded but also treated their freelance Personal Trainers pretty badly. I wanted to build a place that used sports science at its core and put its coaches and their needs right at the heart of the company.”
For all three directors, this shared ethos was the motivation behind joining forces. It is an approach that seems to be working as PerformancePro leads the field in science-based intelligent personal fitness. Reassuringly, PerformancePro also has a very good retention rate of trainers and clients.
And away from the gym?
With three small children, a couple of properties and PerformancePro to manage Dan doesn’t have much time for hobbies. Watching England play rugby is always a great treat, even better when accompanied by a pint or two of Guinness!
Dan’s fitness and inspiration
Dan describes his own fitness regime as ‘a little muted these days.’
With a false hip, metal in his knees and shoulder he goes for long warm ups with lots of mobilisation. To maintain strength Dan includes three big lifts a week along with squats, dead lifts and log presses. The rest is all rehab with 1hr a day on his bicycle commuting. More recently, Dan is trying to get to Yoga once a week for some down time. His favourite pose is savasana, basically lying on his back with his eyes closed!
Top 3 fitness tips
- Get strong not big
- Stay flexible
- Sleep
Inspiration
For inspiration and motivation, Dan turns to the team at PerformancePro,
‘They are all very diligent at staying on top of latest developments. I’m the oldest by quite a margin, but they are always helping me find new ways to work round my old injury issues.’
Away from the gym, Dan can’t help turning to text books and latest research findings to indulge his self-confessed ‘geeky love’ of sports science.