Fitness fanatic duo plan exercise marathon for charity

Eight hours of continuous burpees may sound like a belching extravaganza best avoided.

But for two fitness fanatics who have turned the art of perfecting the human physique into a business, burpees are the very epitome of cardiovascular skill.

Burpees – also known as squat thrusts – are one of the only equipment-free exercises that work your entire body, going from a low squat, to a plank position before maneouvering back into a high jump.

Paul Dermody

Eight would be a challenge to most mortals, but to do them for eight hours? That’s exactly what Paul Dermody and Brian Keane plan to do to raise €5,000 for the mental health charity Console.

For two lads whose chests are so ripped they look like they’re wearing batman costumes, well it’s no walk in the park either, laughs Paul.

“We’re housemates and we’ve been doing them at home every evening to practice and have managed 250 to 300. But we’re exhausted.  We’ve worked out that we’d need to be doing about 2,000 each over eight hours. I don’t know how we’ll do it, but I’m sure we’ll pull it off at the end of the day.”

Brian Keane has a high profile in the world of personal fitness, being one of a handful of fitness models in the country who has competed internationally. He finished in the top 10 at the WBFF [World Beauty Fitness & Fashion] World Championships in Las Vegas in August 2015. He has 40,000 followers on Instagram, who read his grueling fitness schedule, nutritional plans and motivational posts.

After a stint in London as a personal trainer, the Clonbur-native quit his full-time job as a primary school teacher to start his own personal training in business in Galway.

“I had no money, no house, I was driving my little sister’s old Toyota Yaris, I had 500 likes on my Facebook page, no Instagram and I had never stepped foot on a stage,” he recalls on his blog.

“I was called everything from a ‘dreamer’ to an ‘idiot’ for leaving everything in pursuit of something better.” It was then he discovered the world of professional fitness modelling.

He now specialises in online life transformation programmes and preparing athletes for competition.

His fitness partner Paul, 25, does the one-on-one personal training in the business. He caught the bug when he began training with Brian some years back and came third in the 2015 Irish Spring Classic of the Men’s Physique Athlete competition. He quit his job in a bookies in Ballybrit to concentrate on fitness full-time.

“In our game we’ve noticed a crazy amount of people who have a bad body image or suffer from eating disorders, I think it’s through social media and all these selfies that they think they look bad; some suffer from body dysmorphia.

“There are all these companies who prey on that. There has to be self acceptance. People have to learn to love themselves. There’s such a large tie-in with young people and mental health, so that’s why we chose Console,” explained Paul.

“Though we hope to raise €5,000-10,000, our real aim is to create awareness and have people know they are not alone or weird for having this condition.”

The event will be held on Saturday, March 19 in the Warehouse Gym on the Monivea Road, where they train many clients. The public are invited to cheer the pair on and get involved – if they dare.

To donate, log onto Just Giving