‘My well-being and confidence is hinged on my ability to work out’

Fashion designer, documentary maker and broadcaster Brendan Courtney (47) was a fitness and dance teacher for many years. He stresses the importance of staying fit as you age.

WAS in a school where boys couldn’t do gymnastics or anything fun or interesting that I wanted to do; it was football or GAA. So I never did sports after primary school and I hated them. I was overweight as a teenager. Then I qualified as a fitness instructor when I was 24, and I was a fitness and dance teacher for 10 years. I’m what I would call ‘a storer’ — my genetic make-up is somebody who could gain weight quite easily. I have to work at staying trim.

“Fitness has always played a big part in my life since my early twenties. I’m 47 now. I stopped teaching to focus on my career in television, but I continued to attend classes. For the last four years, I have had a personal trainer who I train with two mornings a week, using weights to keep my core strength good. My partner Adam and I qualified as animal flow instructors last July. It is animal-based choreographed, core-strengthening movements. Doing the teacher training is like training for a 10km, it focuses the mind a bit.

“It has been quite a stressful period for the last few years — my dad was sick, and my best friend died. I probably wasn’t training as much as I should have been. My back started to spasm. I thought, Oh, it’s just age. The morning of my dad’s funeral, my back completely locked. But after training in animal flow, I’m running a half marathon in Achill in July and I’m back properly training. For me, fitness is integral to who I am. I love a good meal and a few drinks now and again. I have a very happy appetite for a fun life, but my mental well-being, my confidence, everything, is hinged on my ability to be able to work out.”