Daddy Kabuiku, founder of Train For Life

I am a level 4 personal trainer, the highest level of industry recognition, as well as a nutritional advisor. I have been involved with the fitness world for nearly three decades, as both an athlete and a coach. I have a wide range of experience in different sports and martial arts, such as Judo, Athletic, Football (semi-professional) Boxing & Thai Boxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The knowledge have I acquired through training and experience is backed up by coaching certifications and grading.  I am a qualified football coach, Thai Boxing Black belt (10th Khan) and a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black belt.

In my late thirties I began to experience individual success in Thai Boxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at a National and European level. Assessing my new status, from a competitor to a champion pushed me to think about what I had changed in my approach. The result of all my trials, experiences and analysis led me to develop the train for life philosophy.

The training fundamentals are based on understanding everyone needs and potential then playing with the right intensity, the idea is to train using the following variables; tempo, weight, rest period and speed, in order to make the training session demanding and doable! I am wiser now and understand that it is not always Fast, I will depend on how you feel, what is going on in your life…

It took me 12 years to get here… it demonstrates that nothing stay still, we have to be humble and keep on searching to improve!

My qualifications

• Level 4 personal trainer

• Exercise referral Instructor

• Lower back pain certified

• Instructor for Women in pre and post pregnancy

• Core & stability training certified

• Body Weight training qualified

• Kettlebell instructor

• Power Club training instructor 

• Advanced Boxercise qualified

• Spinning Instructor

• Football coach Qualified

• Thai Boxing black belt (10th Kahn) Qualified

• Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black belt

Other events & achievements

100 mile cycling events
10km race events
Triathlon and athletics events

Football at semi- professional level

The best job in the world

I truly believe that we need to do something we like, something that comes naturally. I often exclaim in a spin class that I have the BEST JOB in the world.

I've said it and I mean it, to be a personal trainer is nothing other than being MYSELF, doing what I like the most.

The truth be told, if I was not in a gym working, I would be in a gym training, so having the opportunity to be in the place where I want to be and being paid for it is a blessing.

I've always liked to teach and see people grow, my best memory is of coaching  a football team of under 10 year olds in France. It was the C team, which means the youngest and least skillful boys of that age group category. 

My job was to teach them the basics of football, to help them to love it and also to teach them important life concepts, such as work as hard as you can and it will pay off, never be afraid to try, don't give up and be a good teammate. 

One of my peculiarities as a coach is that I was silent on the sideline, never shouting at the boys what to do, and I forbid their parents from shouting too (they could support though). My boys were playing their own game. It often went wrong, as we lost many games, on the other hand we often played better than many teams with older kids.

Then, it happened, we went to a tournament at the end of the season, facing teams of higher divisions and all the hard work paid off. My boys had a wonderful tournament, displaying a masterclass of football, game after game, I was still silent on the sideline, it was raining, so nobody realised that I was crying with joy.

Nothing has changed today, my relationship with the people I personal train, coach and instruct is the same. I believe in people, I am myself the result of a lot of WORK, I claim no talents or skills, if I have one skill, it is to realise my limitations and put the hard work in, in order to compensate.

To believe in people means that anybody who trains with me who is giving her or his best effort, will be cared for, supported and pushed to achieve more than they ever believed they could.

I am highly competitive, but I learnt to put my ego aside in order to grow as an instructor, coach, athlete and person. I remind my guys on a daily basis that FAILING IS A BLESSING, that it is part of the game, that we improve because we fail, learn and bounce back. I practice what I preach, so the guys follow me when I ask something, as they know I have been there before or I will be there with them.

One of the benefits of 1 to 1 personal training sessions is the opportunity to really get to know people. In fact, I now count few real friends amongst my PT clients. I truly believe that sweating, suffering with the guys gives me real insight into their true personalities. On top of that fitness and the work ethic are a universal language, which brings people together.

Finally fitness and competition are important in my family life, I met my wife in the gym. She has been the ear, the support in the shadow that any athlete, husband, man needs. She witnessed my most important sport achievements up to date, becoming BJJ European Champion in 2011 & 2012, we now have two kids so she wasn’t with me when I won another European title in 2018.

Nowadays we can't travel together anymore, nevertheless she does something more important. She looks after our two boys whilst I'm away. My Legacy. They are the ones who fuel my desire to get better each and everyday. Before their birth I was living, since they are here I LIVE, they are the reason why I wake up early in the morning to work on my business, train myself, train my clients, in time to be back home to look after them during the day or to put them to bed at night. When I come home from a competition, I like to give them the medals I've won. When I am away competing I don't think about my wife and my boys until I'm finished with the competition. Once the competition is over, I just want to get home and be with my family. The boys miss me when they don't see me all day and I miss them too, however I do all this FOR THEM. I want to be an example, a positive influence, a source of pride. 

That's my story, what's yours?