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The prison cell workout: an inspirational fitness regime with a difference
L J Flanders' journey from prisoner to personal trainer is set to motivate couch potatoes and ex-offenders alike, reports Rob Kemp
In the spacious surrounds of a Virgin Active gym in Essex, personal trainer L J Flanders instructs his eager clients on the lifts, stretches and exercise drills that may – eventually - enable them to replicate Flanders’s own fitness levels and toned physique.
As a personal trainer, he certainly practises what he preaches. But his graduation to gym guru is far from conventional.
L J is the author of The Cell Workout, an ingenious training manual based on body weight exercises performed in limited space with no access to the types of kettlebells or Smith machines that now surround Flanders in the Virgin Active weights room.
“I started writing the book whilst locked in a cell for 23 hours a day, on remand, at Pentonville prison,” he explains.
L J Flanders in action (Photo: Drew Shearwood)
In 2011, Flanders was sent to Pentonville to await trial after being involved in a fight. ("I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," he says.) In his cell he began performing basic exercises in a bid to get into shape and combat the boredom.
“I wasn’t a gym goer before I went to prison. I’d say I was ‘football fit’ really, playing a couple of times a week. I was 21 when I went inside. It was daunting and I knew I didn’t want to come back.”
He decided to channel his energies into exercise and fitness.
“But there are only so many standard press-ups or sit-ups a person can do in a room that’s eight feet by six feet without getting bored or hitting a plateau.”
When the opportunity arose for him to improve his fitness know-how and develop new skills and qualifications, he grabbed it. “In prison I studied to become a personal trainer and once qualified I got a job in the prison gym.” Soon, fellow inmates and friends on the outside were contacting him for advice on training.
Flanders spent 14 months in Pentonville (Photo: Alamy)
“That’s where the idea of the Cell Workout book came from. At that time, I didn’t have the expertise or knowledge to provide what they were looking for.” Flanders put pen to paper, thinking of various exercises for each body part, writing the descriptions and drawing the diagrams. On release, after serving 14 months including remand for GBH, he set about crafting the book to include insight on training principles, exercises for all key muscle groups as well as stretching and meditation techniques. The final product features Flanders himself, modelling each drill, photographed in a cell at a closed prison-cum-studio in the east end of London.
The appeal of the gym environment to those on remand or serving sentences, with its social interaction and ethos of improvement and development, is something that groups committed to helping offenders find career opportunities on release are tapping in to.
The Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) has carried out research showing that sport has the ability to reach out to men and women who in the past have shunned educational courses. “Many prisoners have had bad experiences of schooling and won’t engage in the conventional classroom environment,” explains PET’s Head of Policy, Nina Champion, co-author of the ‘Fit for Release’ report, with Dr Rosie Meek.
“But through the prison’s gym or sports clubs they often see the ‘worth’ of education. Many prisons offer programmes that educate them in health and fitness – as well as giving them skills in team work and coaching.”
They can then progress their qualifications to higher levels, required by employers such as Virgin Active, by applying to the Prisoners’ Education Trust for distance learning courses in subjects such as sports science, personal training and nutrition.
Champion explains that “showing employers they have achieved high level qualifications helps to demonstrate motivation, self discipline and subject expertise, which is especially important for those with a criminal record to secure a job and income for themselves and their families after release”.
Indeed, Government research from January 2014 shows that PET-funded learners were more than a quarter less likely to reoffend when compared with similar prisoners. The report from the Ministry of Justice’s Data Lab sampled over 3,000 prisoners supported by the Prisoners’ Education Trust to study distance learning courses in a variety of subjects - many of which would have included sports.
Champion points out that many prisoners – especially young offenders - come to jail with poor social and communication skills. But once they engage in the opportunities to work with others through sport, their outlook and behaviour often changes. “Good prisons use sport as a hook to reach out to prisoners whose levels of literacy and numeracy are poor, through the gym-based initiatives. Outreach teachers in the gym will adapt the maths courses, say, to incorporate gym weights or the measures of foods or proteins shakes – giving it a relevance that engages learners.”
One prison in Kent, HMP Swaleside, has re-branded its gym into the ‘Island Sports College’ – establishing itself not just as room for lifting weights but as a centre for learning.
However, Champion is concerned that new stricter rules on Temporary Release Licenses – programmes that have in the past enabled aspiring trainers a chance to work in the community and develop ties in the fitness industry prior to release – will seriously curtail the good work being done.
For L J Flanders, now 25 and embarking on a career as a freelance personal trainer after 18 months working for Virgin Active, his Cell Workout book is also the outcome of his personal journey through prison and after. “Now I just hope in some way it can help other prisoners on theirs.”