Juggling training as a parent can be a tough call for some, so what do you do? It’s hard to believe it, but it’s the final episode of the current season of UR Podcast! See how we said ‘current’ season? You know we’ll be back for more after this one. For our last stint behind the microphones, we’re diving into the challenges and strategies of maintaining a fitness routine as a parent. It’s not easy. Nobody ever said it would be. As dads of four and one respectively, Andy and Ken are well-versed i...
Jun 25, 2025•32 min•Season 2Ep. 8
If there's one thing that is deemed to go hand in hand with sport, with training, with gym work or gym life, it's injury. For some, it's major - broken bones here, dislocations there, a trip to A&E here, surgery there. For others, it can be minor - a bump, a bruise, a scrape, a sprain, an ache, all of which you try and ensure don't develop into something more. But no matter how big or small, one thing's for certain - injuries aren't any fun and can be hugely frustrating, regardless of what l...
Jun 11, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 7
On this edition of UR Podcast, we're talking all about training through pregnancy. For some, it's the most wonderful of times, for others, it can be far from rainbows and butterflies, and anything but enjoyable. So when it comes to pregnancy, however, how and where does training fit in? Should you train? Why should you train? Are you training to prepare your body for a pregnancy journey, are you training while pregnant, or are you looking to get back on the mats post-natal? Can you still lift? S...
May 28, 2025•35 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Everyone's talking about HYROX and everyone seemingly wants a HYROX. But what's it all about? As a veteran of a few foreign HYROX events, this episode puts Andy under questioning as both a coach and participant to get into the nitty-gritty of the fitness world's obsession with all things HYROX. What's involved in an event? Do you need to be fit and strong to take part? Just how do you train for a HYROX event? Is it just the latest 'shiny object'? What if someone comes along with an event that of...
May 14, 2025•35 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Grief. It's something we'll all experience at some point in our lives, no matter how big or small. Whether through human connection, business, sport or beyond, grief can take many forms, and for each of us, the journey is personal, unique. We'll stress too that we're not grief experts, but through learned experience, we know how grief can deeply impact someone's fitness journey. It's a missed goal, a championship lost, the passing of a loved one or maybe an opportunity never realised. While our ...
Apr 30, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Hands up if you’re reading this and think you need to get fit and get in shape *before* you go to a gym or take up a new sport or class. When you think about it, does that seem a little backwards to you? For many people engaging with a gym, class, training group or sport of any size, the first step can often be the most difficult. How do you cross that white line? What does it take to get through the front door for the first time? What about sending that email, that message, making that phone ca...
Apr 16, 2025•33 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Where our first episode of this season brought us on a whistle-stop tour of where Urban Gym has been over the past five or six years, this episode explores the theme of training for life. Meeting people where they're at is a core philosophy of the gym and business, and with this conversation, it's about meeting people where they're at in life and training for just that - living. Why do we train the way we train? Why do we look towards certain pieces of equipment? What benefit is a hinge movement...
Apr 02, 2025•32 min•Season 2Ep. 2
A lot's happened in the past few years, hasn't it? When we (as in Andy and Ken) first got together for UR Podcast, we were sat in a relatively newly-opened Urban Gym, complete with a viewing area for grappling and MMA. Remember those days? We shared the couch with an Olympic swimmer, a former Irish rugby international, a local business owner, had a few rolls and chats with Pat Divilly and more. Then COVID hit, so we jumped online to chat with MMA coaches and athletes, musicians, chefs, strongmen...
Mar 19, 2025•30 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Guess who's back? UR Podcast, from Urban Gym, returns to your ears in March 2025 with the first of eight brand-new episodes. It's been a few years since we shared the couch with business owners, Olympic swimmers, musicians, fighters, grapplers, chefs and more, but in 2025, UR Podcast returns with a brand new format, tackling topics and questions from the gym floor that are designed to help meet you where you're at in life, health, and your fitness journey. Bookmark or subscribe today wherever yo...
Mar 17, 2025•2 min
We've long said it as part of the podcast series - everyone has a story. This edition is our story. It's a journey that's taken four years, countless doctors, specialists, consultants, neurologists, chiropractors, pharmacists, friends, family and more to get from the summer of 2017 to 2021 where we started with a possible case of vertigo for Andy that transpired to be Chronic Lyme Disease and in the process transformed our daily lives. As a preface to this month's podcast, we know there are peop...
Apr 11, 2021•1 hr 52 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Hailing from Cork, Richard Shanahan is a Dublin/Meath based sport psychology practitioner. By the age of 21, 'Rich' was a 2nd dan tae kwon-do black belt, eventually running his own club in Cork (now run by his cousin). He's had a nine-year stint in army life, has completed over 800 jumps as a skydiver but more importantly - as it relates to this edition of UR Podcast - he's an extremely qualified sports psychologist who has worked across Gaelic games, tennis, show jumping, athletics, golf, swimm...
Mar 14, 2021•1 hr 32 min•Season 1Ep. 16
"I'm gonna be the baddest dude on the planet". An interesting choice of words for our February guest whose infectious smile may have you believe otherwise. But for Urijah Faber, it's a belief he held from a very early age and sustained throughout near 20-year MMA career - that's still active. The UFC Hall of Famer joins UR Podcast to talk candidly about his early fight days, becoming the best version of himself training, testing and adapting along the way. We talk lows, highs, challenges, advers...
Feb 06, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 15
UR special guest for the podcast this month is chef, author and broadcaster Edward Hayden. Some will know Edward from his books, from his TV appearances weekly with Virgin Media (and TV3 before that), from his radio show or you may have passed through his Culinary Arts course in WIT. "Yet to hit the big time" as he says himself, Edward started life after school on one path and very quickly discovered another. From his first cookery demos to studying for a masters, nearly burning a TV studio to t...
Jan 18, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Everybody's got a story and Maverick Sabre has a great one to tell. We know that over the course of 45 minutes or so, we're only getting the tip of the iceberg. Born Michael Stafford, Maverick Sabre moved to and was raised in New Ross, Wexford from an early age. By 15 he was hanging with some of the biggest names in the rap game, on stage too, before turning up for class the following morning. With school life finished, he wasted no time in returning to the UK to begin his music career. You'll l...
Dec 06, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Our guest for this month's podcast began their professional playing career in the early noughties by signing a youth contract with Luton Town. While his time at The Hatters was tough to digest, it taught him lessons that were carried back to Waterford United and would set him a course that would cross the Premier League, Championship, League One, Champions League and embark on a senior international career with the Republic of Ireland. With close to 500 league appearances and another 33 caps for...
Nov 01, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Nathalie Lennon is a health coach on a mission to deliver long term, rewarding, life-changing solutions for her clients or ‘coachees’. It’s all about empowerment, you see. Under her NLF brand - that’s Nathalie Lennon Fitness - Nathalie empowers her clients with education, tools, support and a positive environment to thrive, grow and succeed. Or, in her words, to ‘essentially rise to a place which is diet culture bullet proof.’ We’ll talk about that, diet culture. The ins and outs of the fitness ...
Sep 28, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Nicky Whelan has overcome adversity and life threatening injury, driven by obsession from a young age, to compete in and win strongman events. He's also the guest for this edition of UR Podcast as we reach double figures with another super story. Having discovered gym life in his late teens, Nicky Whelan stumbled into the world of strongman competition by watching Trish Porter lift a car in New Ross in 2001 and thought to himself "I could do that". Of course, you don't prepare to lift a car by g...
Jul 20, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Sleep expert Tom Coleman is the special guest for UR Podcast #009, ironically recorded on one of the hottest and sunniest days of the year. Founder of My Nutrition Ireland, Tom's background is in health science, with a specialisation in health, sleep and nutrition. From the word go, Tom brings the science to sleep. He's had the opportunity to work with some exceptional technology deployed by the likes of the Seattle Seahawks (NFL) and Chicago Cubs (MLB). What would you do if you knew there were ...
Jun 02, 2020•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 9
How important is your gut health? As it turns out - very. To get to the heart of the matter, we've got a super podcast for you this time out as we're joined by Dr. Alan Desmond aka 'The Devon Gut Doctor'. Alan is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to all things whole food plant-based. Now more than ever we're seeing the benefits of using cleaner, more natural fuel for our bodies. As a consultant gastroenterologist, Alan is the one people turn to when it comes to matters inside the body. Every...
May 07, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 8
With over 10 years elite MMA coaching experience, including cornering Cody Garbrandt to UFC bantamweight gold, Justin Buchholz joins UR Podcast direct from his home in Sacramento, Cali to chat fighting in a Covid-19 world. The world is changing, even moreso since last month's podcast with Pat Divilly. Where we once sat in the gym as a family, drinking coffee, swapping stories, we're now doing everything remotely - be it running our classes online, or chatting to our podcast guests. This month, t...
May 01, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 7
It's a lockdown special! When we sat down in March to record this episode, little did we know we'd be looking down the barrel of a global pandemic that has impacted so many lives. Some of the topics we cover today may help those of you at home as we catch up with Pat Divilly, performance coach, fitness nut, jitz nerd and much more besides. Pat opens up, lets us into his space for an hour to talk about his journey to where he is today in life and business. It's a super fun listen that ultimately ...
Apr 01, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Gráinne Murphy was the darling of Irish swimming, destined for greatness on the international stage from a young age. Native of Wexford, she moved to Limerick in her early teens to be able to train at an elite level. It paid off, with three golds and a bronze at thee 2009 junior European championships. Then things pick up - Young Sportstar for 2009, Sportswoman of the Year in 2010, medals at senior level in Europe and more before the big one. The 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Illness and injur...
Mar 01, 2020•59 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Myles Price is a professional MMA athlete, Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt and co-owner/head coach of Team Ryano Kilkenny. Having trained at American Kickboxing Academy in helping Khabib Nurmagomedov prepare for both Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, Price has seen a lot in the past 2 years, never mind the years of competitive experience prior to that. Myles is also currently signed to the Bellator lightweight division on an 18-month. 12 months into the deal and with one fight on the promotion, ...
Feb 01, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 4
The Irish Experience provides Irish tours, with local guides, from their base on the Hook Peninsula in Co. Wexford, the cornerstone of Ireland's Ancient East. Founder Graham Doyle started college age 17, swapped Multimedia for a world of travel and work in the southern hemisphere. Coming home to Ireland, he moved into the world of adventure tourism, beginning with a return to college in Tralee as a mature student. For his college placement, he set up his own company, and the rest is history. The...
Jan 01, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 3
It's UR PODCAST #002 and this month we're joined at Urban Gym HQ by now former Irish rugby international Alison Miller. A trailblazer for the women's game, Miller turned to the oval ball just over ten years ago and rapidly found herself in the green shirt. Over the course of an hour we walk through her career from the early days of athletics and football to her international breakthrough; we look at the process and outcomes, her love of winning that continues to fuel her love of sport; big game ...
Dec 01, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Live from Urban Gym , New Ross, this is episode one of the all new UR Podcast and this month we're going "all things Urban, baby" to get proceedings underway. Want to watch the podcast instead? Head on over to the Urban Gym YouTube channel and fire things up! For our first episode, it's Ken on the chair joined by Urban Gym co-owners Andy and Marina to talk all things Urban - from their backgrounds to sourcing a business location, building a customer base and growing their idea while juggling sep...
Nov 01, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 1
This is a quick introduction to UR Podcast, launching November 2019 . Episode one drops the first week of November where you'll hear Andrew and Marina discussing their road to launching Urban Gym, transitioning from the world of competitive mixed martial arts to running a training facility, juggling family life and much more besides. If you've got questions about any of the content in any episode, email info@urbangym.ie . Better still, check out the website here for all details. Hosted on Acast....
Oct 29, 2019•2 min
