Mayyah and Rob Blair have just made their much-dreamed-about move to the Peak District (along with their daughter, Flo and their dog, Red). The pair are originally from Durham and Burton-on-Trent respectively, have just relocated from South-East London where they spent over a decade building their gym and personal training business– The Commando Temple. The pair have always had a love affair with the great outdoors and can often be found running around the hills and mountains of the UK.
Rob started his working career in The Royal Marine Commandos where he spent 8 years. Over this period, he served in Iraq, as well as being stationed in a number of other locations overseas. A hugely unfortunate twist of fate found him needing 2 lots of surgery on his spine by the time he was 24, and he was subsequently medically discharged.
Ever the proactive optimist, Rob’s passion turned to learning how to get himself strong again, and out of pain – and from there he built up an impressive amount of experience and education to help others achieve the same. He is hugely passionate about getting people pain-free and as fit, strong and healthy as possible. He works with people with back pain, joint injuries, and the general aches and pains life can throw at them, as well as people looking to get prepared to join the military, or ready to push themselves for training in the mountains.
Mayyah met Rob around 15 years ago, when the 2 of them were already involved in the fitness industry. They soon found that they both shared a very similar outlook both in life and training. Mayyah has always enjoyed finding and reaching the limits of her physical capabilities. From starting out believing that strength training wasn’t for her – she is now a huge advocate for strength training for women. She’s trained thousands of women (and men) to date – to feel empowered in their bodies and to feel the physical and psychological benefits of being stronger and more able. She has competed at Britain’s Strongest Woman, run the Marathon Des Sables as well as a number of other Ultra Marathons over the last 5 years and aims to complete the Dragon’s Back Race after giving it a valiant effort last year.
Both Mayyah and Rob use a mix of barbells, kettlebells, dumbbells and bodyweight training, as well as a lot of much less conventional equipment with their clients, but both also really enjoy getting people outdoors and out of breath in their preferred setting.
