Joey Bull is four time UK fitness champion, an adventure athlete, fitness writer & author, DVD presenter, International fitness trainer, motivational speaker, classically trained dancer and choreographer. This mix of skills means that Bull’s workouts deliver an all-round conditioning that really pushes your muscles, cardiovascular system and helps improve posture and agility.
As a Trainer: Joey trains all shapes, sizes, ages and abilities from experienced athletes to first time exercisers, older people and children. Joey combines her encyclopedic knowledge of health, fitness and conditioning with a love of the outdoors. Where possible she does away with the conventional indoor workout weight and cardio’ routines and embraces varied elements including activities from dance and gymnastics, outdoors!
As a Writer: She regularly writes columns for leading UK and overseas magazines tackling a variety of fitness, health and activity based subjects. Her book, Tidy The Temple, is about to be published
As a TV, Radio & DVD Presenter: Joey has appeared many times on radio and TV as a presenter, guest and competitor. She has even featured on live Belgian TV where her ability to speak fluent French came in handy! She has filmed five workout DVDs for IMC Vision. Thanks to their success more are planned for the near future.
As a Public Speaking Expert: Joey makes presentations to schools to motivate and educate students into choosing effective and healthy ways to optimize their physiology. British swimming legend and TV star Sharron Davies MBE has invited Joey to join her panel of elite motivational speakers. They will be available to talk to all kinds of audiences from corporate big business to schools and colleges.
As a Dancer & Choreographer: Joey was educated at the famous Elmhurst Ballet School near Windsor from an early age and received the very best training in classical dance and choreography. Although knee reconstruction ultimately ended her dance career, she remains a dancer at heart and is able to build her expertise and into workout routines.
In Outdoor Pursuits: As an avid participant in outdoor activities Joey has immersed herself in most things. As an accomplished mountaineer she has scaled some of the world’s great peaks and rock climbs. She also enjoys diving, mountain biking, canoeing and skiing.
Joey successfully endorses high quality products that she believes in and has helped in the development of some. Her extensive media contacts also allows for good profile raising coverage and PR for products and businesses in the press. Joey has been photographed by some top celebrity photographers and is highly experienced in front of a camera.
Joey Bull is a four time UK fitness champion and an exceptionally talented and highly accomplished fitness expert. She is in conversation with Namita Nayyar President Women Fitness.
Ms Namita Nayyar:
You were educated at the famous Elmhurst Ballet School near Windsor from an early age and received the very best training in classical dance and choreography. You are a active participant in outdoor activities like mountaineer, mountain biking, canoeing and skiing. You reached the pinnacle of success by winning four times UK Fitness Championship. Tell us about your journey that took you to the top of the world of fitness?
Ms Joey Bull:
Like many youngsters I started out with a clear dream of a career and mine was to dance. I was sent to one of the leading ballet schools in the UK. Though quite often life quickly throws up hurdles of course and takes you down different paths. My parents were mountaineers so holidays were shaped around rocks, snow, summits and lots of rain!
At the time I worried this was all a distraction and was losing focus and and not being dedicated enough to my chosen dance career, how these contrasting worlds could marry to my advantage didn’t seem likely. None of the other girls were rock climbing, hiking and mountaineering!
My parents, although lovers of ballet, quite rightly wanted me to have more strings to my bow. Years later, when I was invited to join Adventure Race teams, I felt the advantage of all the varied skills my father taught me from shooting to diving and so much more. Until then, I battled it out on the dance audition circuit. It was tough being small and pretending to be two inches taller! Then after a nasty skiing accident which required knee reconstruction, I was told I’d lead an inactive life and dancing was certainly over.
It was then in the rehabilitation that I started to wonder, if that was true, what would I do? My life until then had pointed in quite a specific direction. Of course I did courses and qualified meanwhile but nothing replaced movement, flow and expression like dance and sport can. Rehab was going well though and I was seeing and feeling differences. My fitness stepped up and just to have a go, I thought I’d enter for a UK fitness competition on the quiet. I was totally clueless to the drills and code but still managed to place placed 4th. My now best friend placed 2nd!
At this point it occurred to me that, if I actually concentrated on this properly, found out more of what was required and trained accordingly, then a few good performances, maybe even pinching a win or two would be great for carving a new path and getting a bit of self promotion. Talking myself up was never going to happen (and still doesn’t, I need other people to do that!) but pulling some hard training off and applying it was always the better option.
I actually managed to win four British Championship titles and on the international circuit, against world class gymnasts and born and bred athletes, I placed 8th and ranked in the Top 10 for quite a while. This was an achievement I was proud of and only became more proud as I realised I was basically the only ‘clean’ competitor at that level. The goal for me after all was health and fitness, not to compromise health with sports enhancing drugs.
My success did work, I git magazine covers, TV appearances, sponsorship, magazine columns, product endorsements (although I’ve always been very fussy about what I put my name too), public appearances and now eight workout DVDs of amazing production value that sell all around the world. So it worked out in the end and I’m still shaking a leg and making a living from it all!
All content on this site is copyright of Women Fitness and no part of any article found on this site may be reproduced without an express permission and highlighted, do follow link crediting http://www.womenfitness.net/ or preferably the original page as the source. This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar President womenfitness.net and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.
Ms Namita Nayyar:
You were a classical dancer and had training in choreography but due to knee reconstruction, abruptly ended your dance career. But with exceptional physical training you achieved the enviable transformation of your body. Tell us more about your body transformation success?
Ms Joey Bull:
Body transformation was everything to me at that time. It is still a huge emphasis on my work now. Not being blessed with model like or curvy genetics, I quickly learnt that you could modify your shape with tweaking here and there, changing angles of arms or legs in an exercise to gather more sweep or softness to the line of the muscle.
Ladies can be fit but carry a bulky or square look to the muscle – which was certainly my propensity – so everyone I train now, I bear this in mind, we want to enhance what we’ve got and optimize all we can. I have a boyish shape but by keeping shoulders round and flutes and thighs shaped right, I can pull off a more feminine curve and make my waist look tapered.
Ms Namita Nayyar:
How has your background of being a Classically Trained Dancer at the famous Elmhurst Ballet School been a catalyst in your success of becoming a fitness expert?
Ms Joey Bull:
Ballet, by the nature of having to start out at a really young age, is one of the best disciplines. It means every exercise or training schedule after that is just a process and you just get on with it. We trained three to four hours per day as young dancers. So when I was competing, three workouts per day wasn’t a problem. Nor was the pain or injury, once you’ve worn point shoes, pain is OK!
The blessing ballet brought me in competition was a finesse that the gymnasts lacked, they had the flips, power and the wow factor instead but I could bring something that was more graceful and controlled somehow. In photo shoots I could create shapes rather than regular fitness poses and as far as it helping in work today, it is just another perspective that I drawl from. Even unsuspecting client with two left feet who thought they were turning up for ‘typical training’ have found themselves prancing around in something approximating dance!
Ms Namita Nayyar:
Share your exercise routine that you do to maintain such a bikini perfect physique?
Ms Joey Bull:
I think shape is everything in a bikini, even if you’re carrying more fat than you would like, so long as the muscles are in place they can forgive a lot:
– Shoulder raises, lift weights or band out to the side. I like this as it gives the impression of good posture and a smaller waist, shaped shoulders also can make a sleeveless outfit look fabulous
– Tricep kick backs, with weights or a band, extending the arms tight to the body and keep rotating the thumbs in and out. This works the whole tricep and keeps the floppy
underarm away”
– Biceps and back, these might seem like muscles we can ignore as they go unnoticed compared to abs and gluteals, but working them presents the rest of the upper body nicely and helps everything “tie in” well. I like a narrow chin up with an underhand grip. If these are too tricky (and they are to start!) stand beneath the bar with a foot stool or platform to get some height so you can jump up and get your nose over the bar!
– As for abs, it goes without saying that they can pull off the bikini look all on their own – but some of us just don’t have the physiology that show them off well, no matter how lean we get. I like abs over and done with fast. So my favorite at the moment is on the high bar again, hands wrapped over either way, raise the legs with the goal of touching your hands with your feet, yes! To get people started out on this I tell them to swing their legs into a nappy changing position, they understand! This is tough so the next best one is lying on your back, legs in the air and reach and touch your laces. You could turn that into a pike sit up if your lower back is trouble free.
– Gluteals are a weakness for many and not a great strength of mine. A high, rounded backside is a great goal however! For a lifted look, lie on a Swiss ball on your pelvis, make sure there is good balance between your legs and arms. Widen the legs with the feet still touching the floor, then bring the heels together and raise them to the ceiling in a frog or diamond shape, touch back down wide and repeat until you feel this working in the high mid part of the backside.
– A great all rounder for legs and the backside are jumping squats. Only take them in three different stances: 10 X narrow, feet nearly closed and parallel, 10 X wider, hip distance apart with feet and 10 X with feet slightly turned out, like a ballet dancer but wide apart and as if sitting backwards.
– Curtseys really work the outside of the leg and help create a soft curve in the thigh. Usually about 8-10 slow curtsies each side with the body either perfectly upright or touching down (as if picking up your flowers!) works nicely.
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Ms Namita Nayyar:
What is your diet? Do you take a particular fixed regulated diet comprising of nutrients and vitamins to keep you in perfect health?
Ms Joey Bull:
I love food but I’m careful to avoid wheat, dairy and sugar. Of course they might feature now and again but I’m aware of the discomfort and mood changes within minutes. Despite the bad press it is getting, I still eat fruit! Typically breakfast would be fruit and hemp seeds and scrambled egg. I snack with raw vegetables or fruit with protein – humus, chicken or nuts and seeds.
Lunch is often salmon with coconut milk and salad, maybe sweet potato… similarly for an afternoon snack and supper. I can’t deny I make cakes at home with natural sugar and chestnut flour… I’m known to consume lots! Unfortunately and maybe to the detriment of my competitive career, I’m not a big fan of supplements – all those sponsorship’s I missed out on! I juice every day, thick and green and by no means delicious. Hemp, Himalayan salt and other food pick me ups, keep me on track. If I get sick I fast and I’m better so much faster than if I carry on eating.
Ms Namita Nayyar:
What is your motivation to take a multi-faceted personality of a fitness model, fitness trainer, media personality, nutritional expert, fitness champion, fitness
writer & author, DVD presenter, motivational speaker, adventure athlete and classically trained dancer?
Ms Joey Bull:
To be honest my varied work has just evolved. I’ve had some great supporters and people behind me helping, prompting and guiding over the years which has helped things move forwards and doors opening. I suppose by the nature of my background, I don’t fit in any single box so I have accepted opportunities that I feel in tune with, experienced in and have a voice for.
If I was to go back to my dream (once the ballerina one was history!), it was to work honestly, keep to what I had trialed and believed in, to make an individual celebrate his or her health and fitness and strive for more of that good feeling. For all the writing and filming I have done, nothing beats that hands on, one to one with people and a lady or gentleman leaving my studio feeling great, fueled with endorphin’s and looking forward to their return.
Ms Namita Nayyar:
You have glowing skin and gorgeous hair. Do you take some kind of skin treatment to keep it young and glowing and secondly what you do to your hair to make them look so stunning?
Ms Joey Bull:
My Mum always scorned too much glamour, make up or self fuss so I’ve never been as deliberately well groomed as I’d like to be! Though having said that, as I write I am in Saint Tropez with ladies parading lots of glamour and gold no matter their age so my head has been turned! I know there are lots of wonderful treatments available to make us more glowing but there is nothing like happiness, good diet and sleep.
Needless to say they don’t all come at the same time but I know what to do to brighten up eyes and skin – and that is a rested, clean body from the top of the intestines to the bottom!
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Ms Namita Nayyar:
Tell us more about your book “Tide the Temple”?
Ms Joey Bull:
My book Tidy the Temple is how I live and train. It is also what I have taken hundreds of people through, locally and remotely, to finds their vim and vigor again. It is a 28 day plan that is practical but tight, especially in the first few days. No one goes hungry, everyone gets leaner and fitter and above all, learns much about themselves. I know that sounds corny but within days of good eating, you can skip pre menstrual tension, up and down moods and find a level of seemingly endless energy. And that is without mentioning how well you look from the outside.
There is also the discipline, surprising lack of cravings and natural dislike to your previous bad habits. Wine and chocolate doesn’t taste the same after 28 days of abstinence! My friend Emiko and recipe contributor who had seen so many success stories and happy women (and her husband!) follow this plan that she suggested I commit it to book form. I started writing just weeks after having lost my second baby at birth, I had the passion, knowledge and wherewithal but not the order of how to start and complete a book. She made that bit happen.
The wonderful thing is that months before the cover shoot (thank you Andy Lesauvage – www.lesauvage.tv), I had my third baby and she features on the back cover completely stealing the limelight from Mummy! Despite the horrifying devastation of losing my son during the very final stages of labour, my little girl was my pain killer and you’ll see our smiles say it all in that shot. It was not a planned shot at all. I just scooped her up and Andy fired the camera. The result was something that five hours of planning could not have captured!
Ms Namita Nayyar:
Elaborate on your endeavor of successfully running the websitehttp://www.joeybull.com and what all does it offer to it’s viewers?
Ms Joey Bull:
Anybody who knows me well will know that I am just not technical at all. I try and learn and keep up but really I rely on the greater expertise of so many others. So it’s rather ironic that I was almost ahead of the game by having a personal website – joeybull.com – for years and years, well before many people were going down this path! It has mainly been a resource by which people can find me, find out whatever they want to about me professionally and in terms of my skills, interests and history.
They can then get in touch do discuss anything from individual training programs to events, TV shows, products and anything else that might be relevant. I also have a You Tube channel and a dedicated website for my book Tidy The Temple where there are online training programs based on that (www.tidythetemple.com).
I try and be as open, informative and accessible as possible. I am also now involved in a hugely exciting project with WatchFit.com for whom I’m producing a whole series and packages and programs for the biggest worldwide audience possible. Please check out that website and app platform for details and updates!
Ms Namita Nayyar:
Advice and motivational words to the inspiring and budding fitness conscious girls, who all are your fans and shall like to know from you for their climb to the ladder of success in the field of fitness training?
Ms Joey Bull:
If there are aspiring fitness girls out there, my words are to keep to routine, train smart and not more, get someone to check your symmetry and muscle balance frequently. Train your weakest areas first in your workout for that balanced look.Train with variety as that is best but actually if doing the same thing every day means you do something for daily years, that is better too.
Keep thinking of all those endorphin’s the body produces just from a short workout – more than morphine. Our bodies are amazing machines and even if you’ve let go over time think of this – ‘One month of pure health can heal one year of sickness and bad habits’.
The how to is something else but just knowing the forgiveness and recovery ability of the body, is astounding. It is also nice to think that an accumulation of the occasional good habit makes a big difference over weeks, months and a year – just as bad habits do! Here is something that blew my mind the other day when I read it in an energy medicine book; ‘The biomagnetic field of the heart extends indefinitely into space’. So with that knowledge, let’s make every beat a healthy and positive one…
Ms Namita Nayyar:
What you wish to say about the website Womenfitness.net and message for its visitors?
Ms Joey Bull:
I really enjoyed the Womenfitness website. It has done a superb job of informing, engaging and inspiring women about the vital areas of health and fitness for well over a decade. It is an absolute privilege to be part of it! I found it easy to navigate with each and every feature of genuine interest. Seeing the photos, reading the articles is everything for motivation to keep our own health and fitness abundant. Long may it continue!
To know more about Joey Bull check her out at: http://www.joeybull.com/
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Women Fitness Team thanks Joey Bull for giving her valuable time for this interview and quenching the thirst of her fans to know more about her and made this interview happen.
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All content on this site is copyright of Women Fitness and no part of any article found on this site may be reproduced without an express permission and highlighted, do follow link crediting http://www.womenfitness.net/ or preferably the original page as the source. This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar President womenfitness.net and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.