How did rugby shape your path?
Perfect Gym, part of the Sport Alliance group, is a global software provider specialising in ...
Fitbench creates modular training solutions designed to support efficient, high-quality workouts in a wide range ...
22-23 Sep 2026
Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River, Bangkok , Thailand
latest fit tech news
PureGym is encouraging people to step away from their screens and go for a walk, in a new initiative timed ...
news •
29 May 2026
Active people app, Strava, has overhauled its strength training experience, allowing gym-goers to automatically log and share their lifts from ...
news •
27 May 2026
The world’s first awareness ring has been launched. Designed to promote presence, focus and calm via gentle haptic vibrations, the ...
news •
13 May 2026
Center Parcs’ Aqua Sana Forest Spa, Woburn Forest, UK, has transformed an unused space into a touchless wellness area called ...
news •
12 May 2026
Gharieni Group has launched a new company, Cobotics Innovations, to create automated wellness experiences. The first solution is a robotic ...
product innovation •
07 May 2026
US-based robotics wellness company Aescape Inc has entered insolvency proceedings following the sale of substantially all of its ...
news •
06 May 2026
Fitness platform, Zing Coach, has teamed up with Les Mills, in a partnership that gives its users access to group ...
news •
23 Apr 2026
features
Interview: Ollie Marchon
From professional rugby player and personal trainer to the founder of a global fitness brand that lives up to its ‘life without limits’ strapline. The founder of MARCHON speaks to Kate Cracknell
Published in Health Club Management 2026 issue 2
Marchon launched his company while playing professional rugby Jack Emmerson
How did rugby shape your path?
Ollie Marchon: the portfolio
- MARCHON Gyms
- MARCHON Training (app)
- MARCHON Supplements
- MARCHON Apparel
- ATHX (co-founder)
- Perform X (cofounder)
- Professional Fitness Coaches Association
- Gym Owners’ Network
The PFCA delivers a CIMSPA-accredited syllabus for personal trainers / Marchon
“Jenz Robinson and I launched the Stronger Coaches Association (SCA) when we realised the personal training qualifications we’d gone through weren’t fit for purpose,” says Ollie Marchon.
“In fact, the reasons I and some others had excelled were that we had the degree and the sporting experience. In my case, my entrepreneurial mindset and the soft skills acquired through my upbringing were also a factor. But a lot of people don’t have access to those things. So, the SCA was basically a mentorship programme that we built and delivered to other coaches.
“Over time, it evolved into the Professional Fitness Coaches Association (PFCA). I believe we’re the only personal training qualification provider in the UK that’s been able to write and deliver its own syllabus, because CIMSPA has granted us permission to do so.
The PFCA and the Gym Owners’ Network are our way of paying forward, helping others experience the successes we’ve enjoyed
“We now qualify hundreds of personal trainers at Level 2 and Level 3 every year.
“Alongside that, we’ve also developed further education courses, such as the Functional Fitness Coach certification, and we run seminars on topics such as small group personal training, programme design and so on. We have a brilliant head of education and it’s a really cool business – one that sets out to redefine the long-term career prospects for a personal trainer and elevate the status of the fitness coach.”
He continues: “The evolution of this business also saw the creation of the Gym Owners’ Network, which is a mentorship business for other independent operators; we work with around 150 gyms domestically and across the world.
“All our learnings from MARCHON – around hiring staff, building our product, building a commercial model that works, opening new sites and so on – we now teach to other gym owners. They maintain their uniqueness, but they get to apply the learnings from our wins and our mistakes.
“The PFCA and the Gym Owners’ Network are our way of paying forward, helping others experience the successes we’ve enjoyed.”
Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
Gallery
MARCHON Stratford is one of two locations in London Jack Emmerson
The MARCHON team regularly competes in events such as Crossfit Marchon
MARCHON Performance Nutrition will be key to global expansion Marchon
Marchon started out as an international rugby player Marchon
Marchon’s Harpenden gym runs sold-out classes throughout the day Jack Emmerson
Physical gyms are a fundamental part of the MARCHON portfolio Jack Emmerson
The original gym in Harpenden UK has been joined by locations in London and Bath
More features
Editor's letter
Into the fitaverse
Fitness is already among the top three markets in the metaverse, with new technology and partnerships driving real growth and consumer engagement that looks likely to spill over into health clubs, gyms and studios
Fit Tech people
Ali Jawad
Paralympic powerlifter and founder, Accessercise
“Users can easily identify which facilities in the UK are accessible to the disabled community”
Fit Tech people
Hannes Sjöblad
MD, DSruptive
“We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting”
Fit Tech people
Jamie Buck
Co-founder, Active in Time
“We created a solution called AiT Voice, which turns digital data into a spoken audio timetable that connects to phone systems”
Profile
Fahad Alhagbani: reinventing fitness
“The team is young and ambitious, and the awareness of technology is very high. We share trends and out-of-the-box ideas almost every day”
Opinion
Building on the blockchain
For small sports teams looking to compete with giants, blockchain can be a secret weapon explains Lars Rensing, CEO of Protokol
Innovation
Bold move
“Our results showed a greater than 60 per cent reduction in falls for individuals who actively participated in Bold’s programme”
App analysis
Check your form
Sency’s motion analysis technology is
allowing users to check their technique
as they exercise. Co-founder and
CEO Gal Rotman explains how
Profile
New reality
Sam Cole, CEO of FitXR, talks to
Fit Tech about taking digital
workouts to the next level, with an
immersive, virtual reality fitness club
Profile
Sohail Rashid
“35 million people a week participate in strength training. We want Brawn to help this audience achieve their goals”
Ageing
Reverse Ageing
Many apps help people track their
health, but Humanity founders
Peter Ward and Michael Geer
have put the focus on ageing,
to help users to see the direct
repercussions of their habits.
They talk to Steph Eaves
App analysis
Going hybrid
Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
Research
Physical activity monitors boost activity levels
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
Editor's letter
Two-way coaching
Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
Fit Tech People
Laurent Petit
Co-founder, Active Giving
“The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action”
Fit Tech People
Adam Zeitsiff
CEO, Intelivideo
“We don’t just create the technology and bail – we support our clients’ ongoing hybridisation efforts”
Fit Tech People
Anantharaman Pattabiraman
CEO and co-founder, Auro
“When you’re undertaking fitness activities, unless you’re on a stationary bike, in most cases it’s not safe or necessary to be tied to a screen, especially a small screen”
Fit Tech People
Mike Hansen
Managing partner, Endorphinz
“We noticed a big gap in the market – customers needed better insights but also recommendations on what to do, whether that be customer acquisition, content creation, marketing and more”
