Dragan and Rajko Radovic`s Hour of Power classes are sweeping

Dragan and Rajko Radovic's Hour of Power classes are sweeping the country and building real fitness
communities and equally real fitness. HOP has taken hold all-over the UK and has been particularly
successful outside of the city.
"There is seemingly an ever-growing demand
for ways of achieving fitness and health that
will bring people togethel" explains Rajko.
"Everyone knows these days that fitness
must be a part of their lives in some way
or other, but for many the gym is still not
always the most appealing solution. For
We decided to visit and profile two village
communities where the Hour of Power has
literally 'taken over' to see just what has been
happening and more importantly why this
class is having such a great effect.
In the relatively small town of Chard in Somerset,
known more for historical reasons than for
modern ones, ask someone in the street about
the Hour of Power workout and chances are if
they haven't attended, they'll know someone
who has. With a population of almost 10,000
Chard, Somerset
that's afair achievement, however; it's not so
many there is a desire to find an alternative
much because everyone in the town attends the
to the often isolated training experience of
being a member of a large health club." HOP
achieves this, the resistance-based CV class
seems to have packaged the right blend
class
- more so because
those who do have
had such a powerful conversion to it. Apparently
those who don't do the class have even gone
as far as to cal! it a Cult! Whilst those 'on the
of ingredients - content, professionalism,
inside' have a very different view, using words
friendliness and no-less importantly, it get
results, "For many there is a desire to find
like community and family to describe the FIOP
an alternative to the often isolated training
experience of being a member of a large
health club where you can enter and depart
not having spoken a word to anyone,
a grandmother right next to a professional
or anyone really knowing who you are or
noticing you were there," further add
Rajko. Sometimes this is precisely what we
want, but judging by the impact of the
Hour of Power workout on communities,
there is a much larger demand for
something a little more connected.
movement they arc apart of. "When you have
rugby player in the
sare class, both
doing
the same wokout and both getting the same
personal challenge (and enjoyment) out of it,
that inevitably breaks down baniers and brings
people togethe6" says instructor Simon Lunn.
uWe
have seen so many people connecting and
communicating with each other through this
class, who otheruise may see each other around
town but never communicate, And my personal
opinion is trat
tre Hour of Power workout,
more
so than many other fitness classes is a great
leveler. There are no egos in this
class. As a
class and there are a number of women using
Lunn is a gym owner and teaches most of
the classes himself and is a self-confessed
addict of the method. However, such is the
heavier weights than you."
popularity of HOP that he has sent local
man, you can't have an ego when you walk into
of Power, it's unlikely she'd have ever
considered doing it, or had what it took to
pace herself, breath her way through it or
cope with the mental difficulty.
candidates on the cedification course to be
able to support the groMh of the class. uWe
are a small community and Hour of Power is
almost a 'community within a community', but
what's best about the whole thing is watching
people transform themselves through this
workout and using it as a platform to doing
other things. We've had lots of people use
the Hour of Power to get them started in
fitness and give them a base. Some have
gone on to complete marathons - having
never previously been very active. And all of
them credit Hour of Power for giving them
the fitness and confidence to try other things
that they would have thought were totally
beyond them.
"
On one end of the spectrum, keen runner
Jacqui Wiggins started doing Hour of Power
as merely a variation to her running routine,
but soon found that it helped enormously
with her breathing, mental strength and
total conditioning. She recently proved this
by coming first in her age group in an event
involving three back-to-back marathons in
three days. She states that without Hour
.
i
Participant David Carter used Hour of
Power to, in their instructor's words, 'Lose
a Person'. But more'so than the weight=
loss and fitness gains, David found that
the discipline and consistency of the Hour
of Powel something usually only found in
Martial Arts, gave him something he could
latch on to when going through a very difficult
phase in his life, where he'd lost all motivation
and self-confidence and saw very few
positives. A year later having been a regular'
at the class and helped out in the distribution
(and lugging around) of all the dumbbells
required, rather than starting to Iose his
enthusiasm, he is brimming with it. "l'm now
doing a lot of things (like marathons) that
would have thought were totally beyond me.
I'm a heavy chap and wasn't into fitness at
I
all, but I found the HOP class and community
was juSt really friendly and open and I didn't
feel self-conscious - even though I was at
first worse than a complete begiRner"
Smaller towns, villages and communities,
away from the hustle and bustle of the big
citieS, tend to have the capacity to notice
MAY 2OI4 ultra-FlT
when something really works and latch on to
it in a more devoted way as a result. Perhaps
Howell is a horse trainer and has his
working roots firmly laid in the racing town of
because they are not bombarded by the
advertising boards and endless new products
Newmarket. He was surprised by just how the
class attendances took off, but not surprised
why. "We have many sportsmen using our
trying to grab your attention, as is the case
in the city, or the massive arruy of cJasses on
offer in the large health club chains. lnstead,
people are able to hear about something,
try it out; and if they like it...they really like
it, And if it really works, they won't just tell a
friend
-
they'll tell everyone they know.
around it, full of very normal people of all
ages, both men and women, it is hard not to
admit that something about it must be a little
different from the rest. Though phenomena
like Zumba and BMF (British Military Fitness)
classes; including jockeys. They arc getting
great benefits from the high cardio benefits
of HOP, keeping body-fat levels low and the
have found mass appeal, they have failed to
appeal to a wide audience and rarely brought
communities together. Hour of Power
communities have multi-generational, sporls
and fitness background participants - mothers
and daughters, grandmothers and pro-rugby
players, middle-aged male weightlifters ald
high reps are achieving great overall body
condition, And the boxers have found that it
not only increases their core strength but also
endurance during their sparing sessions."
ln Red Lodge, East Anglia, lan Howell decided
to try launching an Hour of Power fitness class
on a very local level, expecting perhaps 10-15
people to join him. His expectations were realistic
-
maybe even low, because he'd only recently
certified to teach the programme and he had
means that it is not off-putting, Howevel it's
also challenging enough for someone with a
minimal budget to promote the class or himself.
more advanced level of fitness. "lt can never
be boring because you can keep taking the
But he didn't mind, because it was something he
just wanted to do. Fast forward ayear and he is
intensity higher and higher and that's why
the athletes really love it." And rather like
now the head of a team of instructors under the
Somerset's HOP cousins in Chard, Howell
has increased his and the HOP's reach to
banner of 'HOP East Anglia', leading classes
of up to 80 people in local village halls and town
theatres and truly'taking overthe town'. uWe
started off in half an Assembly Hall and then a
few weeks later had to open up the space in
both parts of the hall. We had 60+ people turn
up."
A yeat later it hasn't slowed down. Howell
adds,
uWe
have people traveling from miles away
and the strange thing is, it's just a small sleepy
village in the middle of
MAY
Suffolk."
2OL4
:
female marathon runners - they all work out
sifle-by-side with the same passion and the
same readiness to convince others that it
could work for them too.
Howell believes that the workout is simple
enough to get into for a beginner and that this
We don't know what the definition of a cult
is, but as much as the Hour of Power seems
to be creating a devoted and almost fanatical
following, we see no closed doors or rejection
of other methods - in fact quite the opposite,
'lt seems to be a launch-pad for many people
into 'real' fitrress. That link between nonactive and active, creating an open door out
neighbourings villages. uWe are getting more
instructors on board shortly to continue our
progression and the city of Cambridge will soon
be our target.
"
,.
There are a lot of great fitness classes out
there and on first look it's hard to see that
Hour of Power is any different to the rest.
But seeing the communities being built up
i
of which people-can walk and then see for
themselves all the options out there. And feel
for themselves all the benefits of being fit,
and being a 'fitness enthusiast',
For more info on Hour of Power,go to:
www.fitness4x4.com