Galway school of fitness is leading the way in its field

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

When Talking Sport last sat down with Tom French in 2010, he was managing Mervue United in the League of Ireland while also governing his modest principality, French Vanoli Fitness, out of a 500 square foot premises located on the club’s grounds. That was then. Today is a different story. Today, he presides over an empire.

Having later moved to a 2,000 square foot gym – near his wife and Pilates instructor Claudia’s 3,000 square foot premises – out in Oranmore, the couple subsequently decided to amalgamate their resources and house their joint fitness venture in an impressive 12,000 square foot facility over two years ago.

Recently rebranded as French Vanoli School of Fitness, and located at Oranmore Business Park, the French domain is certainly worth a visit and it opens the eyes to a world that would have been unimaginable in the West of Ireland a quarter of century ago. It’s top class.

Throughout the morning, enthusiasts of all ages skip in and out of the School of Fitness attending a myriad of classes from Pilates to Strength & Core to CrossFit. French later describes their clientele as ‘a community’ and he is not lying. In all, over 500 people cross the threshold on any given week.

From the lay person looking to reignite new fitness goals to the Galway hurlers, for whom French does the physical training, to track and field athletes searching for that elusive millisecond or extra inch, the School of Fitness caters for every level, standard, goal and ambition.

French stresses though the emphasis, first and foremost, is on teaching those athletes, aspiring or otherwise, the correct techniques in order that their clients yield the maximum results and, more importantly, remain injury-free.

“You don’t be left there with the bench press like in the normal gyms,” says the Donegal native. “Everybody who comes in here we teach them. We will teach you how to move, teach you how to improve your flexibility and we show you how to recover. So, when you do get out there on your own, you will know the technique and understand the movements.”

One phenomenon currently gripping fitness enthusiasts across the country is CrossFit, a mix of a number of disciplines including gymnastics, Olympic lifting, powerlifting and plyometrics, among others. It is a popular high intensity workout.

“In our place, we do a thing called custom strength, so no matter what level you are at, you start wherever you are at with your own strength. So, when you come in, we could have different people doing different stuff. You could be doing a dead lift or a bench while the next person could be doing a squat. It is at your level. We fix your technique and you just then progress from there.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.