Personal trainer, gym owner & coach — Peterborough.
I've never been someone who loves sport — and I still don't like salad.
I wasn't the one getting picked first for teams at school, and I certainly wasn't someone who naturally understood health, nutrition, or how to look after myself.
Like a lot of people, I struggled with my weight when I was younger.
What started as a personal challenge — simply wanting to feel better in myself — slowly became a passion that would shape the rest of my life.
Over the past 28 years, that passion has taken me from learning in local gyms and building equipment in my dad's garage… to training clients in London, Canada, and now in the private gym I built here in Peterborough.
Today, my focus is simple: Helping people feel stronger, healthier, and more physically capable for the years ahead.
When I left school, I quickly put weight on and found myself feeling uncomfortable in my own skin.
At that point, I had no real knowledge of training, nutrition, or what "getting fit" even meant.
A friend introduced me to swimming, and that was the first step.
There was a gym attached to the pool, and I joined with absolutely no clue what I was doing.
Because this was before the internet, I taught myself the old-fashioned way — buying books, borrowing from libraries, reading obsessively, and learning through trial and error.
I even built my own makeshift equipment in my dad's garage so I could train at home.
"Progress doesn't come from perfect information. It comes from consistency, curiosity, and sticking at something long enough to understand it."
It didn't take long for me to realise this wasn't just a hobby.
The more I learned, the more I wanted to understand — and the more I wanted to help other people do the same.
To make that happen, I worked on building sites during the day while studying in the evenings to earn my first fitness qualifications. It was hard work, but I knew this was what I wanted to do.
Even in those early years, I was never someone who wanted to stop at the basics. As soon as I qualified, I became obsessed with continuing to learn.
I was always curious about what actually worked, what different systems could teach me, and what would genuinely help the people I worked with. That mindset has stayed with me ever since.
"That period gave me the foundations not just to coach people — but to understand what it really means to commit to something long term."
Once I qualified, I moved to London because I wanted to immerse myself in the best gym environments I could find.
My early years were spent working at Soho Gyms in Camden and Clapham, surrounded by people who were as passionate about training as I was.
I also spent time working in more exclusive private training environments, supporting high-profile and affluent clients who valued discretion, detail, and a very high standard of service.
Those years pushed me to improve quickly. I kept studying, kept qualifying, and kept learning from everyone around me.
This was also the stage where I began to get recognised for the work I was doing, including being featured in Men's Fitness magazine.
"At the time, I was deeply interested in performance, physique, and strength training — but I was still only at the beginning of understanding what great coaching really meant."
One of the biggest turning points in my career came when I walked into a gym in Kensington High Street.
I knew immediately that I wanted to work there.
They weren't hiring — so I joined as a member, turned up every day, trained there, and kept asking until eventually a job came up.
That gym became one of the most important chapters of my career.
I spent around 15 years there, working with a huge range of clients.
The people I connected with most were adults who simply wanted to feel better. They weren't trying to become athletes. They wanted to move well, stay independent, feel stronger, and enjoy life.
That changed everything for me. It was during those years that my coaching evolved beyond fitness.
I became passionate about helping people age well — building strength, mobility, confidence, and long-term health.
That philosophy still shapes everything I do today.
"The people I connected with most were adults who simply wanted to feel better — to move well, stay independent, feel stronger, and enjoy life.
— Leigh Carter, Founder of anybodygym
My wife and I made a huge life decision to move to Canada and start again from scratch.
We settled in Kelowna, British Columbia — and it turned out to be one of the best decisions we ever made.
Before long, I had built enough momentum to open my own gym.
For the first time, I had a space that was completely mine.
This was also the stage of life where becoming a dad made my philosophy around health feel even more important.
"Strength, energy, and longevity stopped being abstract ideas. They became personal."
After four years in Canada, family priorities eventually brought us back to the UK.
Starting again was never something that frightened me.
I had done it before, and I knew how to build something properly.
Back in Milton Keynes, I rebuilt from the ground up once again — first training clients outdoors and from a smaller private setup.
I later secured a much larger space and began building another gym.
Then COVID hit. Like so many people, plans changed overnight.
"If there's one thing nearly three decades in this industry teaches you, it's that progress is rarely linear. So I adapted, kept working, and kept moving forward."
Every time I've had to start again, I've come back stronger — because every chapter taught me something the previous one couldn't.
Eventually, my family and I moved to Peterborough because I wanted to do something I'd been working towards for years:
Build the perfect private training space.
Today, anybodygym is everything I believe personal training should be.
Private. No crowded gym floors. No distractions. No pressure.
Calm. An environment designed to help people feel comfortable, supported, and capable.
Focused. Just proper one-to-one coaching — nothing else.
Professional. Every session built around you.
"For me, great coaching has never just been about exercise. It's about relationships. Understanding people. Helping them feel better physically and mentally. And giving them something sustainable that improves their life. That's what I care about most."
I'm now approaching 50, and everything I teach is still something I live by myself.
Training has never just been my job. It's been the thing that has helped shape who I am.
It keeps me healthy. It keeps me focused. It keeps me physically and mentally strong.
It helps me be the kind of husband, dad, and person I want to be.
That moment when a client feels stronger, healthier, or more confident than they've felt in years — that still means everything.
And after all these years, the part I still value most is helping someone make progress they didn't think was possible.
Honestly, if I won the lottery tomorrow, I'd still be back in the gym helping people.
Because this isn't just what I do.
It's what I care about.
At anybodygym in Peterborough, our personal training services are designed to guide and empower individuals, offering them the expertise needed to successfully attain their health and fitness objectives. We achieve this through a holistic approach that encompasses nutrition, strength training, flexibility exercises, and cardiovascular fitness training.
34 Gloucester Road Peterborough PE2 8BJ
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