No secret to success for Paralympian Dan Powell

Paralympian Dan Powell insists there is no secret sauce to the success of his fitness academy. 

In the space of five years, the Liverpudlian has built GNR8 Academy from nothing into a shining example of changing lives through physical activity.

But there are two key practices that Dan identifies as key to his being able to grow the Leicestershire facility so quickly and so powerfully.

“Number one comes from our small leadership team and that is seeing the person in front of you, not their problems,” Dan reveals.

“We got into this because we want to better people and try to help them get as much out of themselves as we can. The ethos of accepting people as they are runs really deep.

“The second thing is about community. It’s about being the right member for this gym, not the right gym for the members. The vast majority of our members are women, and we pride ourselves on building an environment where people feel comfortable and listened to.”

From 2019 onwards, Dan speaks of a ‘snowball effect’ that saw his small personal training business grow into something much bigger.

On any given weeknight, the Academy’s two venues are a hive of activity with classes aimed at a variety of groups, from six to nine-year-olds to women-only sessions, totalling 34 each week.

Dan prides himself not just on the scale of it all, but the type of people who have come through his doors and found inspiration. 

“We want to bring people together, get them moving and do something good,” he says. “We’ve worked with young people who are in police custody, people struggling with mental health or low self-esteem, finding ways we can make an impact on society.”

“I wanted to create somewhere that a young Dan growing up on my estate in Liverpool would have wanted to go.”

Dan has found the process extremely rewarding, particularly as it pertains to his own elite athlete life.

He feels that his performances as an elite judo player have improved in line with the success of the Academy, culminating in a silver medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

“To be honest, it’s been very hard work spinning both plates,” said Powell.

“I’ve been running two full-time careers and they have both run really parallel to each other in terms of success. The gym has become successful and the trajectory of my judo career has gone up really sharply, which I wouldn’t have expected to be honest.”

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