{"id":526323,"date":"2026-03-10T07:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526323\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T07:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:39:11","slug":"cork-entrepreneur-embarks-on-new-challenge-with-fitness-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526323\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork entrepreneur embarks on new challenge with fitness business\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

With his fledgling business, Impact Health and Fitness, entrepreneur and fitness coach Ian Murphy is hoping to bust the myths surrounding physical and mental health for women between the ages of 35 and 60, and is determined to lure them into the gym.<\/p>\n

As summer approaches, you can set your watch by it. The glut of ads drowning our social media feeds for slimmer bodies, summer bodies, low carb, or no carb.<\/p>\n

Throw in the hormonal fluctuations of menopause, the debilitating and demoralising belief that the outcome of the body battle is a foregone conclusion, which we have already lost, and the incapacitating fear of crossing the threshold of a gym in that state, and it is sometimes a wonder any woman over a certain age goes to the gym at all.<\/p>\n

These are the challenges that Impact Health and Fitness coach Ian Murphy is hoping to tackle head-on.<\/p>\n

Last year, Ian and business partner Cian O\u2019Flynn sold their hugely successful gym business, ATP Fitness, which had been up and running since 2016, with gyms in Douglas and Ballincollig.<\/p>\n

After the sale, the entrepreneur didn\u2019t sit on his laurels but, within a few short months, had launched a brand-new business.<\/p>\n

He admits to being both scared and excited by the prospect.<\/p>\n

While this solo venture is new and risky, Ian has been training women in the gym for the past 14 years, and feels a passion and determination for the new venture.<\/p>\n

\u201cChange is one of the few constants in life, and a lot of people struggle to adapt to that,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

At the start of 2025, Ian had no intention of setting up a new business, but, as a dad of two small girls, he was feeling pulled away from them each day by the demands of running two gyms.<\/p>\n

So, when Cian voiced similar feelings, it seemed the right time for both young dads to take the proverbial leap and sell up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have to have a plan. But plans change, goalposts move, and we always need to be adaptable,\u201d said Ian.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt took me a while to figure out whatdirection I was going to head in after ATP, but I have never been clearer in my goals than I am in my new business.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cI am loving coaching people with my 1-1 Online Coaching in Nutrition and Training course and excited to build on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AtAt the start of 2025, Ian had no intention of setting up a new business, but, as a dad of two small girls, he was feeling pulled away from them each day by the demands of running two gyms.<\/p>\n

Ian is actively developing his Workplace Wellness programme, where he is \u201cworking with companies to bring practical workshops and challenges through an app that actually make a difference, rather than just ticking the HR box.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also recently launched an 8-week Strong Woman strength programme and app, the goal of which is to get more females training in commercial gyms with structure, support, and sustainability.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of my clients are relatively new or intermediate trainers,\u201d he says, and they report that a huge impediment to their training in a gym is a lack of training structure or feeling overwhelmed by the choice of weights machines they don\u2019t recognise.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Strong Woman app is like having a PT in your pocket,\u201d stresses Ian. \u201cI create a bespoke plan specifically tailored to my clients\u2019 individual needs and designed for the specific gym in which they are working (he researches the gym beforehand).\u201d<\/p>\n

The app gives them nutritional advice, programmes, feedback, answers questions, and also includes videos of Ian demonstrating correct technique on all exercises\/machines.<\/p>\n

The dream is to have women exercising 1-2 times per week for the rest of their lives. Knowledge and understanding are the key to progress.<\/p>\n

An inveterate goal setter in his own day-to-day practice, Ian takes a more cautious approach to setting goals with his clients.<\/p>\n

He cites a client who insisted she wanted to do four gym sessions a week. Laudable? Sure. But this sort of ambitious goal can often set someone up to feel like she\u2019s failed, if she only gets there three times.<\/p>\n

Ian adopts a more holistic approach to his individual clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiet, exercise, and stress levels all impact. I take a tactical approach when looking at training strategies for each individual client who could be battling post-partum, menopause, peri-menopause, etc.<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge my clients to factor in all the things that could potentially derail the goal. I say: let\u2019s pick the low-hanging fruit first. Aim for two sessions, and if we get in a third, it will feel like a score, and you\u2019ll feel great.\u201d<\/p>\n

His theory is that if you aim for four sessions a week and only get two done, then you could feel like you\u2019ve failed, and that leads to people throwing in the towel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are our own harshest critics, and when looking back, we gravitate towards the things we didn\u2019t achieve or do well, without acknowledging all that we did do,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as we learn and keep taking steps forward, it becomes a lesson, not a failure. It only becomes a failure if we stop trying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in the industry of strength and fat loss for nearly 14 years now, and when I speak with clients, their goal is almost always \u2018fat loss\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is great. I\u2019ve spent my entire career helping people to lose body fat. But I find that most don\u2019t have an end result in mind.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAny time we set goals, especially performance-based goals, we have to have a clear end in mind. I employ that mindset myself.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I ask clients when does the fat loss stop and the maintenance start, a lot cannot answer that.<\/p>\n

\u201cFat loss, like performance-goals, is multi-layered and should be approached in phases. You shouldn\u2019t always be in a calorie deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepending on how much you intend to lose, choose a period of time in which to work and commit to that time in your fat loss phase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, Ian insists that clients take a break, eat to maintain their weight, and train hard, before starting again.<\/p>\n

\"IanIan admits his new venture is risky, but says he feels a passion for the project.<\/p>\n

However, before planning the next phase of fat loss, Ian advocates determining the point at which his clients will say \u2018I am happy here\u2019.<\/p>\n

He insists our personal happiness should not be tied to a number on the scales, but aligned to a feeling and a recognition of the journey process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you took an approach to eat well (most) of the time, trained a few times a week, improved your sleep, stress, mood, and ultimately felt better overall, but the scales do not reflect the number you hoped for, it\u2019s important to celebrate. Because it has worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople live in this \u2018all or nothing\u2019 mindset, but life is a continuous rollercoaster and some weeks will definitely be better than others.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a father to two daughters, aged one and three, Ian knows well that there are sleepless nights that leave you feeling \u201ccrap\u201d the following morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is real life. Sometimes your nutrition and exercise will fall off a cliff as a consequence. But that\u2019s okay. This doesn\u2019t define the outcome. It\u2019s about what we do most of the time that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are no quick fixes for people to train, eat and become healthier. No extreme dieting.<\/p>\n

Without coaching and understanding, clients end up repeating cycles of actions that are not working.<\/p>\n

Ian\u2019s approach is more about mindset, sustainability, generating habits that can be maintained and developed, and, ultimately, long-term healthy living.<\/p>\n

Ian advocates radical responsibility in his own life and urges his clients to \u201crecognise that all choices are within our control\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need to be an expert nutritionist, but we do need to have a base level so we can understand it is the foods and alcohol we eat and drink that are the main contributing factor to our weight gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Ian sold ATP Fitness back in August, he gave serious consideration to the many offers of work that came his way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought to myself, if money were not a consideration and I got to work on something that truly mattered to me, what would that be?\u201d<\/p>\n

While money clearly has to matter, with a wife, two daughters, a dog and a house to look after, Ian gave himself permission to interrogate his life-purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelping women improve their health is what I love doing and, after 14 years, I\u2019d like to think I\u2019m pretty good at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in this game to genuinely help people to train with confidence, eat with clarity, and live with lasting results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a fire in my belly for this business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what Impact Health and Fitness will grow to be just yet, but I am truly excited by the clear vision I have for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, contact ian@impacthealthandfitness.ie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With his fledgling business, Impact Health and Fitness, entrepreneur and fitness coach Ian Murphy is hoping to bust…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[49,48,407,84],"class_list":["post-526323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fitness","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}