Andrew and Marianne - another FamouslyFit couple - bring a unique combination which will help us focus on the relationship between illness and wellness and how fitness plays an important role in contributing toward maximum health........................

Meet Andrew and Marianne

Marianne Kane

As far back as she can remember, Marianne has always been determined to succeed at anything she did. In school she was very sporty and was a part of the athletics team, running the 100m sprint and 4x100m relay. She remembers always wanting to be the best, the fastest, the strongest! Coming second was never good enough! Even though she had her fair share of not being the best, it never stopped her trying. Unfortunately chronic knee and back pain ended her athletics when she was about 15.

After her sports days ended, she began gaining a lot of weight and desperately wanted her athletic figure back. Unfortunately she lacked a basic knowledge and understanding of diet and exercise to ever succeed at this, or so it seemed.

After her A Levels she worked in a Cafe for a year, before deciding to study Nursing at Queen's University Belfast. Both her Mother and Grand-mother were nurses, so you could say it was in the blood. She graduated with First Class (Hons) in Nursing Sciences early 2007.

Shortly after graduation she got a job working in a busy Cardiac Surgery ward in one of the leading teaching hospitals in the World (Belfast Royal Victoria) and 4 years on, she is still working away.
As she was progressing through university, she began experiencing back pain which gradually got worse until, at times, Marianne could hardly walk. Around this time and over several months her weight plummeted by 2 stones. After years of seeing countless specialists she was finally diagnosed with an inflammatory Arthritis (Ankylosing Spondylitis) which affects mainly connective tissue and some joints. Marianne was advised that exercise and medication would help prevent her spine from fusing. This is when her fitness journey began.

Joining the University gym, Marianne tried her best to master the most basic of exercises, with extreme difficulty. This is where her never failing determination came in. Over the next year Marianne did improve, but was still hindered by her pain and lacked direction and knowledge. As it happened, this is also where and when she met Andrew Firth (now her Fiancé) who was one of the gym's Personal Trainer). With our passion for health and fitness in common, they soon hit it off.

Since meeting Andrew, Marianne switched her training focus to strength-based work and she has never looked back! To make things even better, in 2009 she was put on a new drug for her arthritis which eliminated most of the pain. Since this "miracle", Marianne´s training performance has gone from strength to strength. The progress she has made still amazes her today and she hopes that her story alone may inspire others about what can be done with a little determination.

In order to document her fitness journey and try to help other people start or continue theirs, Marianne started her own Free Fitness Blog www.myomytv.com in January 2010. The blog provides free workout videos, free fitness advice, support and more. What started as a hobby, is now a second job as the following has ended up more popular than she ever thought possible. Recently, she was even lucky enough to interview one of the leading strength trainers around, Bret Contreras.

In late 2010, Marianne achieved her Level 2 Fitness Instructors Certificate and then her Extreme Kettlebell Instructor Certificate. In March 2011 she will have her Olympic Weightlifting Instructors Certificate too. So she hopes to use her expertise to deepen her knowledge and skills base and cover more areas of expertise.

As a nurse, she is able to understand illnesses and their path physiologies. As a Fitness Instructor she understands how to begin and progress people’s fitness safely and effectively, at home or in the gym. Since beginning her Blog and, now working with Famously Fit, she hopes to expand her reach for helping people even further. Whether it is fitness or nursing related, she is here to help.

Andrew Firth

From the early age of 13, Andrew had always been inspired by strong men and bodybuilders - especially Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger - who you could say inspired him the most to get into weight training. Since then he has never looked back.

Training and living healthily have been the “constants” in Andrew´s life and neither have ever faltered, being there through the good and the bad. He remembers when first starting training; he was too young to join a gym, so he purchased a small set of dumbbells and a weights bench and got started from there, reading as much as he could on the subject.

On his 16th birthday Andrew joined his first fitness club and his training really took off. He realised there and then that this was his passion and, if he could pass this passion on to others, it would be his dream job. So, at the age of 17, he completed his first gym qualification and landed a part time job in the gym where he was training at the time. Four years later, and several more qualifications under his belt, he was working for a council based fitness facility full time as one of their Fitness Instructors. Over the years working for the council he completed several class based and nutrition qualifications, enabling him to expand his range for helping others reach their goals.

Currently, he works for Queen’s University Belfast, at their state of the art sports centre and gym. He is now qualified to level III in Personal Training and is registered with REPS as an exercise professional holding qualifications in; Advanced Fitness Instruction, Optimum Sports Nutrition, GP Referral, Advanced Kettlebells, Strength and Conditioning, and program consultancy for exercise. He can also teach group exercise classes in Bodypump, Indoor Cycling, TRX Suspension Training, Circuits, Performance Boxing, Core Stability and Kettlebells, plus his own very popular Super Sculpt and Abs of Steel classes. The areas he has developed expert knowledge in are Strength Training, Nutrition, Core Strength, Kettlebells, and Body Fat Reduction.

Recently he advised local television presenters on leading a healthier and fitter lifestyle, and appeared several times on UTV’s SevenThirty show and worked with Marc Mallet to assist him in achieving his fitness goals and run the Belfast City Marathon. He has also made an appearance on local radio channel U105 to speak, share his expertise and help answer fitness related questions posed by the public. In addition to all this, he is the co-founder of the very popular www.myomytv.com, where Marianne Kane and Andrew work together to provide people with the best health and fitness information possible, while providing free workouts to keep people motivated and challenged.

Overall, he is an ambitious, energetic and dedicated individual. His passion is for enabling others realise their potential in health and fitness. When he trains clients as a personal trainer his aim is always to ensure they reach their desired goals. This is achieved by developing tailored programmes, using his professional knowledge and skills which he has developed working in the industry for over 20 years, plus taking on board the latest tried and tested approaches by researching the most effective techniques and programs.

Now, he is taking it a step further with Famously Fit.